Snowbound: Volume 1
by SnowLabrador
Summary: Prequel to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Fallen Angel. Lucas Enfield never expected Sinnoh to get snow in July. Nor did he expect supernatural spirits to haunt his dreams. However, when he reckons with both events, he decides to dig a little deeper. However, his body begins changing in ways he'd never expect. TF. Rated T for Teen.
1. Blizzards in July

**Today's date: August 6, 2019**

**Announcements to make: None that I can think of.**

**Milestones: First chapter.**

* * *

_This job...I hate it. I really, really hate it._

It wasn't really a job, even; it was an internship that I was doing through my high school. Of all of the places they could have assigned me, they gave me kitchen duty at the local diner, Cadillac Jack's.

It looked exactly like the diner that was used in the music videos for "Want U Back" by Cher Lloyd and "Fuck You" by CeeLo Green. In fact, that was the point. The diner had been designed to be a perfect replica of those two locations.

_Fuck this, _I thought. _I want to get out of here as soon as I can._

Of course, that would be easier said than done. My shift was supposed to last from 9:00 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon, a grand total of six and a half hours. I did get a thirty-minute lunch break at noon, but that was it. Three uninterrupted hours of work, followed by lunch, and then another three uninterrupted hours of work.

I could barely think of a task more loathsome than washing dishes, wiping down tables after customers had eaten at them, and wiping down the refrigerator doors. They were unpleasant jobs, to be sure, but someone had to do them, so why not me?

At least, that was most likely the reasoning being used when they picked me for this placement.

Right now, I was trying in vain to scrub some scrambled eggs off of a metal container. They were absolutely unyielding, however, and, no matter how hard I tried to do this, I couldn't. They were clinging to the metal like it was an egg magnet.

I had no other high school students with me in the diner; it was just me and the other kitchen staff there. I didn't particularly like not having anyone else to talk to. Had there been others my age there, I'm sure that it would have been just a little more bearable.

As I ran the dishes through the industrial dishwasher, I hummed to myself the song about driving around town with the girl I loved. Quite frankly, the chorus of that song was very effective to sing in order to let off some steam.

Right after putting another rack of dishes through said washer, the most peculiar thing started to happen.

My stomach rumbled, and not in the way that happens when you are nervous or sick to your stomach. Rather, I felt extremely hungry, as though I had skipped lunch that day.

It's worth noting that this happened right after my lunch period, so I should not have been this hungry. There was honestly no explanation for it, none that I could see at the very least. I looked longingly out the window between the kitchen and the dining area, peering at the customers who were still eating their meals.

The thought of having two hot dogs covered in coleslaw thick with carrots and cabbage was extremely tempting, but I tried to focus on the task at hand.

_At least in theory, I have no incentive to work here if I don't want to. It's an internship, which means I'm not getting paid for it. I could just quit right now._

Of course, "in theory" doesn't always mean the same thing as "in practice". The fact was that if I quit the internship, my mother would be very disappointed in me. That was one thing about me; I didn't want to disappoint my parents. It's been said that you should respect your elders, and, let me tell you, you'll get a lot further in life if you do.

I bit the metaphorical bullet, trying not to bite my own tongue in the process, and got back to work at this miserable occupation.

_Not an occupation, though, just an internship._

All that thought did for me was move me a little closer to the brink of simply quitting. But, for the reasons stated above, I couldn't just do that. I couldn't.

And so I suffered through various kitchen tasks for the next two hours. Whenever it seemed like the stack of dishes was finally completed, more of them would come down the conveyor belt towards me, and I'd have to rinse them off, scrub them with a sponge if necessary, place them on the rack, and run them through the industrial dishwasher. It was a very repetitive task, and I kept glancing at the clock.

I had 120 minutes left at the job, and each tray took me roughly two to three minutes, so I told myself that I only had about fifty trays to complete before I could be done with the day's work. It wasn't a perfect coping mechanism, but I didn't think I was going to come up with anything better.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, my shift was over. I breathed a sigh of relief, wiping a bit of sweat off my forehead with my gloved hands, pushing my hair out of my face. It had been nearly an eternity of washing dishes, but, as it's been said before, some infinities are bigger than other infinities, and this was one of the smaller ones. I was finally free!

"You did a great job today, Lucas" said my supervisor. "You may leave".

I thanked the supervisor, but I wasn't thanking them for complimenting me, but rather for letting me leave. It was an incredibly freeing feeling to be done for the day, even if I'd have to just go back the next day.

I decided not to think about it that way, though. Instead, I looked at it as getting to relax until tomorrow.

After unlocking my car, I got into my vehicle and drove home. I was very grateful that I had a license and didn't have to depend on my parents to drive me everywhere. When you're eighteen years old, that's really not an inconvenience you need in your life, not to mention that it's kind of embarrassing at the same time.

Pulling into my driveway, I saw that my parents' cars were absent from the area surrounding my home. This meant that they were both still at work, and thus I would be alone, at least for a little while.

This was just fine with me, of course. I rather liked being alone, especially after a long day of performing tasks I really didn't like. It might have seemed paradoxical, but I have very little social stamina, so I find talking to others in person physically exhausting. That might seem weird to a lot of you, but it's true.

The back door was locked, but my parents always kept a key taped to the grill on the back porch of the house. That's where I went, grabbing the key and unlocking the side door. I then unlocked the back door to our house so that my parents would be able to get in more easily.

I collapsed on the couch in front of the flat-screen TV in the alcove next to the kitchen. Reaching for the remote, my long arm managed to grab it and turn on the television, which turned right onto Vulpix News, the most popular news network in all of Sinnoh.

"-the Coronet Blizzard has resulted in unsafe driving conditions. The mayor of the resort town of Emaire, Sir Ethan Midnight, has declared a state of emergency over the conditions".

I could barely believe my ears. They were telling me that there was a blizzard raging in the Coronet Range, and not in areas near the mountain summits either. No, these blizzards were taking place where people actually _lived._

_But it's July! We shouldn't be having blizzards in JULY!_

I felt a bunch of chills running down my spine, as well as rumbles through my stomach. Fortunately, now that I was at home, I could actually do something about the rumbles.

Making myself a sandwich, I continued to listen to the news report in the background. And, let me tell you, it was rather sobering.

"Roughly six percent of Coronet City's population is homeless, and they are at particular risk of dying of hypothermia. This is the most severe summer snowstorm since the 1890s, and it has already claimed the lives of...".

I set down the sandwich I'd been making and went back over to where the TV remote was. With the click of a button, the screen flickered, then went completely black. I went back to the counter and continued making myself the sandwich.

When I was done preparing my snack, I sat down at the table to eat the salami and cheese sandwich. It tasted like cardboard.

I really didn't know why, but the thought of a blizzard in Coronet City at this time of year, right when there weren't supposed to be snowstorms at all except in Snowpoint City and the areas around it, made part of my body feel hot.

Said part of my body was not, however, my face. Instead, it was a very specific spot on my chest.

Nothing was there, but it felt almost like a spike were penetrating out of it.

_Calm down, Lucas, _I told myself. _For Arceus's sake, __you can be such a hypochondriac sometimes. Why is this time any different?_

And then, out of almost nowhere, I felt hungry again. My stomach was rumbling slightly, but I knew that this didn't make any sense either, not after I had just eaten.

I considered calling my mother to ask her what she thought of it, but then I remembered that she'd told me she had an important business meeting today with her colleagues. If I called her, I'd be disrupting the meeting, and that was less than a preferable proposition.

_Oh well._

I decided that I'd wait until she got home to tell her about this. It could wait another hour or two, and then we'd get to the bottom of this together. We'd start to figure out exactly why I was feeling this way, and what we could do about it.

With that thought, I gave a satisfied smile to no one in particular, reclined back on the couch, and closed my eyes.


	2. Just a Dream

**I finished writing this in the car with my father. Don't worry, I wasn't the one driving (in fact, I don't even have a license). I'd like to thank all of you who rated and/or reviewed the first chapter of this story, because your support means the world to me.**

**The title of this chapter is based off the song "Just a Dream" by Nelly. **

**If you enjoy this story, make sure to leave a comment down below to tell me what you thought, because that really helps out. With that out of the way, here is Chapter 2 of Snowbound: Volume 1!**

* * *

Sometimes I closed my eyes out of satisfaction, but it usually didn't result in me falling asleep. However, this was one of those times.

I'm not entirely sure how long I slept, but I opened my eyes to see that there was sunlight streaming through the windows of my kitchen. I knew then that it must have been at least two hours, because, this time of year, the sun didn't set until well after eight in the evening. It must have been at least six.

As soon as I processed that, I realized exactly why I had woken up. And that was because my mother had gotten home from work.

My mother was an average-sized woman with a fairly average appearance. There's nothing else that can really be said about what she looks like, but, as they say, it all depends on what she cooks like. And I can assure you that she's a very good cook, but that's beside the point.

"Good evening, Lucas" my mother said as she shut the creaking door behind her. She then walked over to me and grabbed my hand.

"Hey" I said, a little quieter than I had meant to, most likely because I'd been sleeping.

"Are you okay?" she asked me. "You seem quieter than normal. I hope you're not losing your voice...".

I shook my head. "I'm not losing my voice" I replied, more firmly this time. "Believe me, if I had lost my voice, you would know. I think a lot of people can vouch for the fact that I often never stop talking".

"Okay then" she said. "I picked up pizza on the way home from work, so as soon as I finish taking a shower, we can eat together".

"Ooh, what kind?" I asked her.

"Pepperoni and pineapple" she replied, and I could practically feel my eyes light up. I don't know about you guys, but pineapple on pizza is pretty much the best thing ever. When paired with pepperoni, it's my favorite kind of pizza.

"Sweet!" I exclaimed. It was a little forced, though, because, while I'd been contemplating the fact that I'd be having pizza for dinner, I had been wondering exactly why I was worried about something. It was just the feeling you have when you feel like you've forgotten something important.

And then it hit me. It hit me like a ton of bricks slamming against my skull.

I must have started to look worried, because my mother said, "I can tell that there is something on your mind. Why don't we discuss it over dinner after I take my shower?"

I had no problem with that, so I watched as she retreated back up the stairs in order to wash up. It was then that I reaffirmed my decision to tell her everything that was happening, even though I figured she'd probably heard by now of the blizzards in the Coronet Range.

It wasn't much longer before she came downstairs again, this time in her pajamas. "Okay, now we can eat".

After setting the pizza boxes on the table, we started having small talk about our days. I didn't want to tell her just how much my internship had sucked, because she'd probably either be pissed at me for hating the internship or disappointed in herself for making me do it. After all, she was the one who had told me that I should do my high school's summer internship program.

"Can I tell you something, Mom?" I asked her.

She nodded, which didn't surprise me. After all, what parent is just going to shut down their child's request to confide in them? "Go for it" she said.

I decided to cut straight to the point. "Did you hear about the blizzard that's happening in the Coronet Range right about now?"

"Yeah, I did" my mother replied after swallowing a bite of her pizza, a barbecue chicken one. "It's quite strange, isn't it? It's not usually supposed to snow in July".

Now it was my turn to nod. "I really don't see why this would happen. Except...".

I dropped the piece of pizza I had been digging into with my teeth. Fortunately, there was a plate below my hand.

"What is it, Lucas?"

"Right after hearing on the news about the blizzard, my chest started hurting. Like a spike was trying to jut out of it". I tried to keep my voice steady and not to raise it, but it was very difficult. Somehow, however, I managed it.

My mother put a hand up to her mouth. "That's definitely a little worrisome. If you were my age, we might have thought that it was a heart attack. That's not likely, given that you are only eighteen. And yet...".

I waited for her to finish the sentence. I did not take another bite of pizza, because I wanted to be ready to respond whenever she wanted me to.

"...I think that we should maybe make an appointment with Dr. Donnelly over this. Are there any other symptoms you are experiencing?"

"Okay, now you _do _sound like Dr. Donnelly" I replied. I couldn't help myself, even if that had been a rather impulsive thing to respond with.

She laughed, before saying, "Please answer my question. Are there any other symptoms you're experiencing?"

I nodded. "I've also been a lot hungrier than usual today. Right after my lunch break at Cadillac Jack's, I started feeling really hungry again. I don't know why".

My mother looked a bit nervous now, and that scared me. When you're young, you often think of your parents as invincible, unbeatable titans, able to solve any problem that comes in their way. I might have been eighteen now, but I still harbored a small amount of that philosophy.

"That's definitely not normal. I'll see if we can get an early appointment with Dr. Donnelly. I think that he'll want to know about it".

I stood up from the table, pushing my chair back in towards said table. "I'm not so hungry anymore".

"Are you worried, Lucas?" she asked me. "You sure sound that way".

Normally, I would have been a lot more careful about opening up to someone that way. However, I knew that since this was my mother, I could trust her, so I said "Yes".

"I think that it's probably nothing, but we'll see if you can see him early tomorrow morning, before you go to the diner".

The thought of going back to the diner was absolutely repulsive to me. The food might have been good, but I wouldn't get to eat any of it. Instead, I'd be the one working there, wiping down tables and washing dishes. I wasn't looking forward to it, to say the very least.

Then again, if it was something relatively simple and boring, maybe that was for the best. I wouldn't have to reckon with the chills running down my spine, and I also wouldn't have to reckon with the odd thoughts I was having about what might end up being the cause of the blizzard.

_You don't know that your symptoms are related to the blizzard, though. It could be anything. Please, don't worry yourself out too much. What is there to worry about?_

"I'm going back upstairs" I said. "Going to continue my summer reading project for school". And yes, in addition to working as an intern at the diner, I also had summer reading to complete. My life was really sucking right about now.

"Okay" my mother replied. "See you later, Lucas".

* * *

I wish I could tell you that this was the end of the saga of my worries. I wish I could tell you that, after confirming with Dr. Donnelly that I didn't have some kind of serious illness, I went back to my normal life. I wish I could tell you that the blizzards in the Coronet Range, and, indeed, in all of Sinnoh stopped then. I wish I could tell you all of that.

But it wouldn't be true.

At about 9:30 PM, I had finished brushing my teeth. Now dressed in my green plaid pajamas, I got into bed. That might have seemed like an early time to go to bed, but I was bushed from a hard day of work. Plus, I'm the kind of guy who believes that early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. You see, I keep _reasonable _hours.

I wrapped my blankets around myself and eventually managed to fall asleep. It took a little longer than I would have expected at first, given how tired I was. Once I finally was able to sleep, I sank right into a nightmare.

In my dream, I was somewhere else.

More specifically, I was falling from the sky at terminal velocity, towards a large lake. That in itself caused me some consternation, because I knew that hitting water from a certain height was just like hitting concrete, only that, when hitting concrete, your newly crippled body wasn't forced to swim to safety.

Eventually, I hit the water. The landing wasn't as hard as I had expected; it seemed like the water had broken my fall.

I instinctively held my breath so as not to inhale water, and I began sinking. I wasn't too worried about this, though; I was always able to get back to the surface after jumping into the deep end of the local town pool, and I didn't see why this would be any different.

But in the biggest "Fuck you" from Arceus that I'd ever experienced, I found that I couldn't swim back to the surface, and I continued to sink like a brick towards the bottom of the lake.

I was now fifteen feet below the surface of the lake. No, make that twenty. _But it's only just a dream, _I thought. _It's only just a dream._

Eventually, by which point I was probably anywhere between thirty and fifty feet below the surface, I heard a sound that sounded like something was freezing over. Sure enough, I looked back up, and found that the top of the lake was iced over.

_Okay, now I'm going to drown._

I'd heard accounts from people who had almost drowned, and it sounded absolutely terrifying. It was now that I started to panic in earnest. I took a small amount of solace in the fact that I was just dreaming, but that didn't make it feel any more real.

_Wait a minute...I can breathe here._

I had accidentally opened my mouth, as I'd heard was one's instinct, even if they're surrounded by water on all sides. I found that the water didn't rush into my mouth and begin filling my lungs. Instead, I was able to respirate underneath the lake, meaning that my only danger was hypothermia.

No sooner did I think of hypothermia than I started shivering. It really was cold underneath the ice, and it was only getting colder the deeper I sank.

Finally, I touched the bottom. It had felt like an eternity, but my feet scraped up against the mud. I tried to walk around, and found that I could. It was almost like walking on the moon - gravity seemed to be much lower here than it was on the surface.

I looked up at the icy surface of the lake, two hundred feet above. It was clear to me that escape was impossible. I would die of hypothermia, or else drown if somehow the magic causing me to be able to breathe ran out. Right now, I didn't know which would be worse.

"Ah...Lucas Enfield...welcome to my domain".

It wasn't too difficult to find the source of the voice. There were seemingly no other beings around me, at least none that I could see, and the voice seemed to be coming from behind my current position.

Looking around, I saw what appeared to be a ghost.

He was a tall man who looked rather like a surfer dude, maybe about fifty years old. He looked rather like my uncle, except for one small difference. His eyes were deep, dark, and clearly cruel.

"Follow me" he said, turning around in a shimmer of icy blue light and floating slowly through the air at a relatively slow speed, not faster than I could walk.

_Am I going to follow him?, _I wondered. It sounded to me like a stupid decision, and yet there was the urge to simply do so. At the same time, I knew somehow that it wouldn't be good if I did.

_What's the worst that can happen, though? It's only just a dream._

I began walking, almost against my own will. It seemed that I could barely control my own movements, and I wondered if this spirit, if that's indeed what it was, was using his dark magic on me, much like the Pied Piper.

I followed the spirit into what looked like a tunnel that had been cut into the rock wall of the deep lake. Said tunnel was very dark, only illuminated by a few torches into the wall in which burned weak yellow flames.

The spirit continued floating through the tunnel, and I followed him for what seemed like an eternity, even though in reality it was probably less than five minutes. The whole time, a seed of dread was in my stomach. _What _could be waiting for me there?

At the end of the tunnel, there was what appeared to be an enormous well that was at least thirty feet in diameter. The surface, roughly twenty feet above, was bathed in a pale green light.

It was then that the magic that had been enabling me to breathe underwater, or whatever it was, ran out, and I found that I had to hold my breath again in order to avoid swallowing water.

I pushed up from the bottom of the well and began floating towards the top. That wasn't getting me there fast enough, and I started to feel like I would black out from the pressure and lack of oxygen. I added my own arm movements in order to make it back up.

Breaching the surface, I began gasping for air. Using the last of my strength, I was able to climb out of the water onto a sandy surface. From there, I surveyed my surroundings, looking around for the spirit that had led me here.

It was gone.

Rather than wrack my brain and try to figure out where he could possibly be, I decided to try and figure out where I was.

I found myself in a cavern with walls in a minty green color, roughly the size of a church sanctuary. There were several stalagmites sticking out of the ground, roughly ten feet tall to the ceiling's height of thirty or forty feet. The entire floor of the cave was sandy.

That's when I saw him.

He was a Lucario, standing roughly five foot six. He was staring right at me with a facial expression that signalled pure hatred.

Even if his face hadn't been in that contortion, he looked dangerous enough thanks to the scythe in his hands.

"Lucas Enfield, you'll be one of us soon!" the Lucario bellowed, beating his chest like a gorilla. He gracefully tossed his scythe in the air, transferring it from his left hand to his right.

Catching it effortlessly in his right hand, he stabbed the air and pointed said scythe directly at my heart. "Everyone, GET HIM!"

That's when I noticed that there were four other Lucario in the cavern, each of which stepped out from behind a stalagmite. One was red, one was green, one was purple, and one was white.

Each of them was holding their very own scythe, a weapon almost as long as I was tall. All of them were pointed at me.

I ran back towards the well, reminding myself that because it was only just a dream, they wouldn't be able to hurt me. That didn't decrease my fear, though.

I leaped into the water and sank like a stone.


	3. We All Have A Hunger

**I'm really spoiling you guys with the daily uploads, aren't I? Oh well, I suspect that that will change soon enough. **

**If you want to picture Lucas's supervisor, picture CeeLo Green. If you want to picture Dr. Donnelly, picture former U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly. Those are the face claims for those two characters. This is nothing to do with politics, just two people I could picture when writing this.**

**I also have a Discord server now. The invite code is EwcwefN. It is case sensitive.**

**I hope you like the chapter, and please don't forget to rate and review, if you please.**

* * *

I'd felt the sensation of drowning in my dream just long enough to experience what was easily the most fear I'd ever had in one moment. I had barely been able to assuage that fear with the knowledge that, no matter how terrifying it might have been, it was still just a dream.

Imagine how relieved I felt when I willed myself to open my eyes and found that I was still in my own bed at home.

_That's it, Lucas, _I told myself. _Breathe in, breathe out. You can breathe. Inhale, exhale..._

Looking around my room, I saw that I'd presumably been thrashing around in my sleep. I could assume this because my blankets were strewn all over the place, and, even though I'd just been sleeping, it felt like I'd been running due to being short of breath.

I turned on my tablet, which I always kept right next to my bed at night. I liked how, when I recharged my body, I also recharged my devices; I felt like there was some kind of poetic justice in that.

According to the tablet's clock, it was 5:22 AM. The appointment my mother had made for me with Dr. Donnelly was scheduled for seven, so I had well over an hour to wait. This was a bad thing, because I wasn't supposed to eat anything before the appointment.

I lazily lay down in bed for a few more minutes before deciding that I might as well just get up and face the day. Swinging my legs to the outside of my bed, I pushed myself onto the floor.

After I was finished with my morning routine, including brushing my teeth and getting dressed, the thought of what had happened in my dream crossed my mind once more.

_It's definitely interesting, what happened, _I thought to myself. _Interesting that that dream was so vivid._

I should probably preface that when I dream, they're usually not as vivid as the experiences I have in real life. I don't have the same level of consciousness in dreams, and I typically don't remember many details of them afterwards.

This time, however, was different. I could vividly picture the cavern I'd just been in, as well as the five Lucario that had hunted me with their scythes. I could feel the sensation of not being able to breathe and trying to reach the surface of the lake. Most importantly, I could feel every bit of the fear that had coursed through my system.

I whiled away the rest of the time before the appointment by looking at the news, trying to find out more about the blizzard in the Coronet Range. The more I looked, however, the worse the news seemed to get.

It might have been sunny and warm in my hometown of Gardenia, a nice quiet suburb of Pastoria City in the southeastern part of Sinnoh, but this blizzard in the mountains was one of the worst that they'd ever had. It might have been nice if the ski resorts in Emaire had been able to open in the summer, but everything had to be readied for it, and it was hard to persuade people to work there in the heart of a blizzard.

_Something's definitely fishy here._

Eventually, it was time to go. My mother, bless her heart, did not eat anything in front of me, not even the usual avocado toast she liked to have with her morning cup of coffee. Instead, we just went out the door and got into her car. I could have driven myself, but I didn't particularly feel like it that day, so my mother had agreed to take me there.

"Anything new happening?" she asked me as we were pulling out of the driveway.

I had a short internal debate about whether or not I should tell my mother about the dream. I was 18 years old, after all, not 8, and I didn't want to risk sounding childish in front of her, even if she _was _my mother.

That debate was resolved quickly when I realized that if I didn't tell her, she would probably think I was hiding something. Of course, she would have been right. She was an extraordinarily perceptive person, one who would be able to tell rather easily if something was wrong.

"Yes" I said. At first, I wondered if that was against my own better judgment, but after reminding myself of the reasons stated above, I no longer thought that. "I had a bad dream last night".

I mentally slapped myself in the face. As stated above, complaining about a bad dream one had had is something that a much younger person would do. But now that I'd said it, all I could really do was wait for my mother's response.

"What happened in the dream?" she asked me a few seconds later.

"Well, I was falling from the sky, towards a deep, dark lake. I sank to the bottom and saw a ghost or spirit right in front of me".

"Could you breathe underwater in the dream?"

I nodded. "Not like that matters, though, since it was only a dream. In any case, I followed the spirit to the surface and to a cave, where there five Lucario hunting me down with scythes".

My mother gasped, and it appeared that she was so shocked that she nearly crashed the car. After stabilizing her vehicle, she said, "That's really quite a dream".

"Indeed it was. And I'm wondering somehow if it's connected to the blizzards up in the mountains".

"I doubt it" my mother replied. "It just doesn't make sense that it would be. You don't normally have vivid dreams like that, do you?"

Shaking my head, I looked out the window at the hospital that we had just reached. It was the Gardenia Regional Hospital; I'd grown out of Children's. And really, that was just as well; I didn't need to be seeing all that childish artwork that Children's had on the walls. At eighteen, I'd find it rather nauseating how colorful it was.

After my mother parked the car in the garage, we made our way inside. We checked in at the front desk and waited for about ten minutes.

That's another thing worth noting. We weren't early for the appointment; if anything we were a minute or two late. However, they still made us wait. That's been my experience almost every time I've gone to the doctor. Why don't they just tell you to come later?

Ah, well. That's enough about that.

"Lucas Enfield?" the woman at the front desk said.

_That's me, _I realized.

By now I knew the way to Dr. Donnelly's office by heart, but I still allowed my mother to lead the way. It was rather embarrassing being led by her through a public place, but that's just the way it was.

My primary care doctor's office was on the third floor of the hospital. As we entered the office, he looked at us with a friendly smile.

Dr. Donnelly was a burly man with thinning black hair. He was probably in his late fifties or early sixties, and he was one of the kindest men I knew. I was very glad that I had him as my doctor.

"So how's it going?" he asked me. "I've heard about your symptoms; you said hunger and chest pain?"

I nodded. "That is correct. Yesterday at work, I was really hungry even right after eating lunch. And later that afternoon, I felt like a spike was trying to make its way out of my chest".

Dr. Donnelly nodded, looking at the notes he'd taken on his computer. "Well, I've ordered a blood test and an EKG test. We'll just run a quick scan of his heart to make sure that there are no problems with that organ".

My doctor picked up his phone, and I wondered at first who he was calling. Then, he said, "Lucas Enfield needs to get his blood taken and an EKG test. Nurse Joy, do you think you could do that?"

There were a few more exchanges of dialogue between Dr. Donnelly and Nurse Joy on the other end, but I didn't hear any of what the latter said. After a minute or two, my doctor got off the phone and turned back to face me and my mother once more.

"We're ready for the tests" he said. "Follow the nurse out to the lab. Julie, do you want to go with him to the lab, or do you want to stay here?" (Julie is my mother's name, by the way).

"I'd like to go by myself, thank you very much" I said. "For Arceus's sake, I'm eighteen now. I can take care of myself to this degree".

"Okay then" my mother replied. "I'll wait here".

Dr. Donnelly nodded. "That works. Lucas, I'll see you in a few minutes, once the tests are over with".

* * *

The blood test was pretty uneventful. It was just a blood test, after all; Nurse Joy just put the butterfly needle in my arm and blood flowed out. After filling four vials, she said that that was all.

The EKG was far more interesting. I'd never had one of them done on me before, and it was definitely a curious experience. The stickers that they put on my arms and legs felt rather cold, although they didn't hurt at all.

"There we go" the nurse doing the EKG told me. "We're done".

Even though I wasn't afraid of medical tests in the slightest, it was definitely a relief to be done with them. I followed the nurse back to the waiting room, where my mother was still waiting for me.

Dr. Donnelly came out of his office and headed over to the waiting room as well. He looked at both me and my mother and asked us if we had any questions.

"When will the results of the test be ready?" my mother asked him.

"They should be here within a few hours. In the meantime, Lucas, you should feel free to go to your internship. Just stop and take a break if you feel dizzy".

I wasn't worried about that; after all, I never really felt dizzy after having my blood taken. I assumed that this time, things would be no different, and that I'd be completely okay at work.

My mother drove back home with me. We didn't talk much on the way back, because, honestly, what was there to talk about? I didn't see much point in having a conversation, personally.

When we got back to my house, my mother fired up the griddle to make pancakes for me. Pancakes were my favorite breakfast food, and they were also very filling. Given what I'd told my mother about being extremely hungry, I suspected that that was the reason why.

While she was making them, I turned on the TV to see if I could find any more news about the blizzard. Fortunately, it seemed to have tapered off, at least for now. Maybe that meant that I wouldn't have another nightmare, but it could also be wishful thinking on my part.

As we were eating, my mother said, "I'm proud of how you handled the appointment with Dr. Donnelly. You were quite grown up, you know?"

"What do you mean by that?" I asked her.

"I mean that you seemed to be initiating a lot of the discussion of your symptoms. You're doing a good job of advocating for yourself".

"Thanks, I guess".

"No problem" my mother replied, cutting one of her strawberries in half and putting one of the halves in her mouth.

Don't get me wrong, the pancakes were delicious. However, I couldn't help but have some very dark thoughts in my mind as I was eating them. Mostly, they were related to my dream.

_Who even was that spirit? He looked like a surfer dude...why would I see that underneath an icy lake?_

I tried to put it out of my mind. My job at Cadillac Jack's would be to be the best intern I could be, no matter how distracted I might have been by these feelings of dread. I might not have liked the task, but it was at least something to do to take my mind off of my dream.

As I was eating, I saw a picture out of the corner of my eye, the picture that was on the shelf above the stove.

It was of a frozen lake. More specifically, one in the Coronet Range that me and my parents would occasionally vacation to, Lake Gordon. Normally, it was a peaceful place for me, a place of good memories.

However, the fact that it was frozen brought to mind memories of my nightmare.

_Well, there's always something there to remind me, isn't there? Isn't that just great?_

Before I could panic, I reminded myself that my nightmare didn't mean anything. It was just that, a nightmare, and that meant that it wasn't real. I tried to comfort myself with that, but, the more I thought about it, the more I felt like a little kid.

_So just don't think about it._

That was indeed another tactic I could use. I could just block it out of my mind for as long as possible. Perhaps eventually I'd have to reckon with it, but I'd delay that day for as long as possible.

"I should probably head to work now" I said. Looking at the clock, I saw that I still had fifteen minutes before I'd have to leave for real, but I needed something to distract myself, and driving was one method of distracting myself.

"Are you sure, Lucas? It's quite early. I don't think you want to wait around for work to start, do you?"

I nodded. "I'm perfectly fine with waiting around. Besides, I still need to put my work shirt on".

"You do that, then" my mother replied.

Cadillac Jack's required all of their employees to wear a very specific outfit, a deep purple T-shirt and orange pants. Don't ask me why that was the dress code; that's just the way it was. And yes, it looks just as ridiculous in real life as it does in your mind's eye.

I went to my room and changed into the required clothes. After giving my mother a good-bye hug, I left out the back door of my house and got into my car.

The drive to the diner wasn't long. It couldn't have been more than five or ten minutes before I pulled into the parking lot and turned the car's engine off. I could have gone into the restaurant right then and there, but I didn't want to spend any more time in there than necessary. That's how much I hated my internship.

I still had ten minutes to wait when I felt my stomach growl once more.

Do you know that empty feeling you get in your stomach and esophagus when you're very hungry? Well, that's what I was experiencing even though I'd just had a stack of pancakes practically drowning in strawberries and syrup.

_Relax, Lucas. You already got tested for health problems. If there's a problem, you'll find out in a few hours._

I gulped and tried to just relax. It would almost be a relief when 9:00 arrived and I could begin working. At this point, even boring, miserable work would be better than no work.

The clock struck 9 AM eventually, so I got out of my car and entered Cadillac Jack's. I didn't know why, but something told me that today would be my worst day yet on the job. _And that's saying something, _I thought, _considering that this job really sucks._

There was a family of Lucario and Riolu eating a relatively late breakfast in one of the diner's booths, but that didn't surprise me too much. After all, many different species of Pokemon had the same status as humans, meaning that they could, for instance, drive a car if they were bipedal like a Lucario.

_I'd give anything to be one of them, _I thought. _I'm just so hungry._

I saw my supervisor in the kitchen, so I entered it and waved at him, trying to appear more enthusiastic than I really was about today. He was still smiling, though, maybe because he loved to torture me with all these tasks. I suppose someone had to do them, though, so why not me, the lowly high school intern?

"Glove up" my supervisor, a large, dark-skinned, bespectacled man told me. "You've got work to do today, son".

_I have a name, you know, _I thought. _Lucas Zantry Enfield, but you can just call me Lucas. _Not that my supervisor cared.

By this time I was absolutely famished, and my hunger was slightly rising with every minute that passed. It would be all I could do to try not to stuff one of the paninis in my mouth. Even one fry would be hard to resist, but I was afraid of what would happen if I did that. Besides, it would be a rather unsanitary thing to do, and I didn't want to make any of the diners sick.

"You'll be wiping down tables today" my supervisor said, handing me a stack of wipes and a spray bottle. "Go down the line and wipe down any tables that appear to be dirty".

I nodded. There was little else I could do; I wasn't going to disobey him, no matter how much I wanted to.

And so I left the kitchen to where the family of Lucario and Riolu had just been eating. I'd seen from the kitchen window that, not two minutes ago, the Lucario father had paid the bill, and then the family had left. I decided to start with that table.

I sprayed down the table and began wiping the crumbs and spots of maple syrup off of the table. I found it helpful to sing lyrics to some of my favorite songs as I did so, because that was one way to alleviate the boredom.

As I was wiping down the table, I sang the song about liking pina coladas and getting caught in the rain. I also had to wipe down the benches, because that's just the way it was. I made sure to sing quietly so that my supervisor wouldn't think I was slacking off.

It didn't work.

"...and I'd like my Chinese food cooked right-". That's what I was singing while wiping down the fourth table, before my supervisor tapped me on the shoulder.

"What is it?" I asked him. "I'm doing my work, can't you see?"

"No singing while you're doing work. Don't want you slacking off, son".

I nodded. "Yes, sir" I replied, holding my flat hand up to my forehead as if I were doing a military salute.

After that, time passed more slowly, and with a lot less noise. I continued wiping down tables until I reached...some number of tables. The eighth? The sixth? The twelfth? It felt like about a hundred.

It was then that I started feeling hungrier and hungrier.

_It's official,_ I thought to myself. _This is the hungriest I've ever been. I don't know how I'm going to be able to resist food once I'm back in the kitchen._

I kept cleaning off the tables until roughly 45 minutes had passed. By this time the diner was almost empty, and the first people coming here for lunch wouldn't arrive for at least an hour or two. Thus, I was probably done wiping tables, at least for now.

After taking a minute to sit down in a chair while making sure, of course, that my supervisor couldn't see me, I stood back up.

Do you know that feeling when you've been sitting down and then you stand up suddenly, and your vision darkens and you feel kind of dizzy? Especially if you haven't had enough to drink that day?

That was me. I was definitely starting to feel rather weird.

I walked back into the kitchen, and, by now, I started to feel rather hot. I was having a hard time focusing on things at this point.

"Are you okay, Lucas?" asked a voice that I knew belonged to my supervisor. It sounded very far away, though.

"N..." was all I could say.

I then proceeded to crumple to the floor in a dead faint right in front of my supervisor.


	4. Transformer

**Thank you all for over 250 views. I'd love to get more feedback on this story, so please review if you have time. I put quite a bit of effort into this, and I'm very excited that I'm back to writing. It's been a while, it really has. **

**This is most likely going to be the last daily upload; like I said yesterday, I'm really spoiling you guys.**

**In any case, enjoy!**

* * *

It couldn't have been more than a minute before I came to lying on my side on the floor, curled up in a fetal position as though I were afraid of something. Somehow, I'd been able to instinctively fall so that I didn't hurt myself.

"Lucas! Are you okay?"

That was the voice of my supervisor, and I was quite surprised to hear it. Since when had he ever cared about my well-being?

"Yeah...I'm fine" I groaned. It was quite something to just pass out in front of your employer. Talk about embarrassing! I didn't know if I'd be able to show my face in Cadillac Jack's ever again. (I'd already decided that I was never going to eat there again. The experience of having to intern there had kind of ruined it for me).

"That was quite startling. Are you sure you're all right? I mean, healthy teenagers don't just pass out at work like that".

"I know what you're saying," I replied, "but I'm fine. I'm not sick or anything like that. I just didn't have breakfast this morning".

It was a lie, but I knew it was a relatively believable one. It was definitely more believable than the truth, as paradoxical as that sounded.

"You didn't have breakfast this morning?" asked my supervisor. "You should know better, son. It's a part of taking care of yourself, making sure you eat well. You're not going to be productive here if you didn't have anything for breakfast".

_I'm a bad liar, _I thought to myself. _He has my mother's number. He could just call her up, and then she'll tell him that I had quite a big breakfast. Who's she going to believe, me or her?_

Oh well. I couldn't worry about that right now.

I stood up slowly and carefully, making sure to do it gradually so that I didn't feel dizzy again. As soon as I was back in a standing position, I looked towards the dining area, where one of my coworkers was looking at me with a shocked expression. Clearly she had seen me fall, but hadn't come in to do anything about it. Not that I would have done so either. (It wasn't that I hated the customers, but I just couldn't find it within myself to care too much about them either).

"I'll be fine, though" I told him. "Just passed out from hunger, that's all".

My supervisor scratched his chin, which was completely bald. In fact, his entire head was bald, which, in my opinion, made him even more intimidating.

"If that's the case," he said, "you should probably go home now. Get some rest, get some food in your stomach. Come back tomorrow, then you'll be more helpful, I should think".

"Thanks, Mr. Richardson" I said weakly. As stated above, I'm a bad liar, and I felt like it was going to be very hard to hold back the dam of tears that were no doubt coming. They wouldn't be tears of sadness, though; they would be tears of embarrassment at having fainted in front of several people.

"It's no problem" he replied. "After all, I care about all of my employees, and that includes the interns. I'm not mad at you at all, or anyone else. Just go home, do what I said, and come back tomorrow".

"Okay" I replied, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. In reality, I was thinking, _Are you seriously going to tell me that you care about all of your employees? You make me wipe tables and wash dishes, two of the worst tasks known to man!_

Of course, I didn't say that out loud. Instead, I left the diner as soon as I had taken my gloves off.

I could have walked home, but that would have meant leaving my car at the diner, meaning that I would have to go back and get it later. For that reason, I decided to chance the drive back home, hoping I didn't feel dizzy and/or faint again.

Fortunately, that didn't happen. I made it back to my house without any issues, and then I entered the back door, where my mother was cleaning up the kitchen. This was unfortunate, because all I wanted to do was go upstairs and lock myself in my room for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, today was a Wednesday, and that meant my mother was working from home today, just as she always did on Wednesdays. Also, I'm a bigger guy, and whenever I walk, it makes some noise, especially on the creaky kitchen floor.

Therefore, my mother noticed me as soon as I walked onto said kitchen floor.

"Lucas?" she asked me. "Why are you home so early?"

"It's a long story" I replied. "I don't want to tell you right yet".

She turned around to face me, and I saw that she had that look in her eyes that told me that, no matter what, she wouldn't let me get away with not telling her the truth. That's one thing about mothers that can be either good or bad: They always want to know the truth.

"I feel like that's not the whole story, though" my mother replied, looking rather irritated. She pursed her lips, and I now knew that there was no getting out of this one.

I took a deep breath. I considered the question of how I was going to explain what had happened. My options were either to break the news slowly or all at once.

Ultimately, I decided on the latter approach. "I fainted at the internship from hunger".

My mother raised an eyebrow. "That really doesn't sound like something that would happen, is it? I mean, you had four pancakes for breakfast only a few hours ago".

"Well, I got really hungry again. And I really don't think I have diabetes or anything like that; that's the only symptom I've got".

"I believe you" she told me.

"You do?"

"Yeah. If you were trying to get out of work, why would you tell me that? That just doesn't sound like the kind of excuse you would come up with".

I shrugged my shoulders. "Fair enough".

Opening the door of the fridge, I grabbed two slices of pepperoni and pineapple pizza, leftovers from last night, and put them on a plate. "Hungry again, are you?" my mother asked me when she noticed what I had taken from the fridge.

"Yeah" I replied.

I took the plate up to my room, because that's where I felt like being. After shutting the door (even though it was about ninety degrees outside and this would make it harder for the air conditioning to cool down my room), I sat down on my beanbag chair and began eating one of the slices of pizza.

I didn't know why, but I just felt absolutely miserable. No matter how hard I tried to rationalize with myself, I felt like my situation was more and more hopeless somehow.

_But why would it be? You're not sinking deeper and deeper into an icy lake, are you?_

After I had finished eating, I put the plate underneath my bed so that I didn't trip over it. Then, I noticed something underneath my pillow. Something shining.

I'll admit it; my first thought was that the Tooth Fairy had come and left me some cash. Then again, I hadn't believed in the Tooth Fairy in a very long time, and besides, I already had all my adult teeth in, being eighteen and all.

But no; this was something far different. And, as I would soon discover, far more sinister.

It was a simple golden locket, one of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry I had ever seen. The thin golden chain was studded with sapphire stones, and the centerpiece of the locket was shaped like a heart. For all intents and purposes, it was something you'd give to your lover on Valentine's Day or a similarly romantic occasion.

However, as I looked at it, I got more shivers down my spine. Something about it was just evil.

I was able to make out some tiny words on the back of the heart. It was difficult to see them, but my vision was still good enough to do so.

_AND I WON'T BE DENIED BY YOU, THE ANIMAL INSIDE OF YOU._

It was just one sentence. Twelve words. And yet...something about those specific words made the back of my neck tingle.

Who had sent me the locket? And why did it cause this sensation?

I didn't think it meant anything in particular. Perhaps it was just something about those words that put me on edge. But I was so, so wrong.

* * *

During the ensuing hours, I remained in my room. I wasn't really in the mood to be sociable with anyone else, and I let it show on my face whenever my mother came into the room to check on me.

Eventually, my father would be home from work, and we'd eat dinner together in the kitchen. But that wouldn't be until much later.

It was about three in the afternoon, and my hunger was coming back in full force. I was debating between another two slices of pizza, another sandwich, or an ice cream sundae; any of the three sounded pretty amazing right about now.

I stood up to head back to the kitchen, and that's when _the event _happened.

What was the event I am speaking of, you might ask?

Well, I had taken a glass of water from my bathroom sink in order to drink. Before I could tip it down my throat, however, my hand started shaking, and I dropped the glass.

Fortunately, the floor of my room was carpeted, and the glass had a soft enough landing that it didn't shatter into a million pieces. However, I was still alarmed by the fact that my hand had started shaking.

The next thing that happened was that my eyes started burning. I'm not talking about the eyestrain you sometimes get after looking at your computer screen for too long, either. The sensation was as though I'd just gotten habanero juice in them.

_Am I going to go blind?, _I wondered.

It wasn't that much longer before my chest started hurting once more, just like it had yesterday. The only difference was that this time, the pain was far more intense, and I wondered if this time, I really was having a heart attack. That would be kind of a lame way to go out at my age.

My skin started prickling, and I saw blue hair begin to grow on my arms, torso, and legs. _No, not hair...FUR._

I remembered hearing legends about a young man who had turned into a Lucario, and it sounded like that might be happening to me right now. If so, that would have explained why I was so hungry; I remembered reading that Lucario often burned nine thousand calories every day, and thus had to eat a ton of food in order to avoid withering away.

I felt more pain, this time on my hands. Near one of my birthmarks on my right hand, the one that looked almost like an injection site, it felt as though I'd been stung with the largest needle known to mankind. The pain was absolutely excruciating, and I could barely breathe.

My hair began to disappear back into my skull, and I felt two massive blobs spring up. These were of course the organs Lucario used to sense aura.

As my bone structure completely restructured itself in order to fit this new frame, I howled in agony. It felt as though every bone in every nook and cranny of my body was being broken, set, and then rebroken once more. And then, the weirdest thing yet happened.

The fur on my new body changed from the dark blue into a light sky blue color, and then...it began to turn white, just as white as snow.

_As white as the snow in the Coronet Range right now._

By now, the pain in my chest had largely subsided. In its place was a large white spike, made up of similar material to an elephant's tusks, that jutted out right above my heart. It was surrounded by beige fur all over my chest.

And now I was absolutely certain what had happened. There was no denying it.

I gulped and entered my bathroom. Even if I knew for sure what I'd transformed into, I still wanted to get a look at myself in the mirror in order to confirm it.

Sure enough, the instant I glanced at myself in the reflective glass mirror, I saw a Lucario staring back at me. Not just a normal Lucario, one with white fur.

_Okay, so I've become a Lucario now. But why the fuck is my fur WHITE?_

I didn't have the slightest idea why my fur would be white, but I did know one thing. If the news came out that I'd turned into a Lucario, it would be all over the media. It would be the number one trending story on PokeTube, Twitter, CNN, and Vulpix News, as well as pretty much any other news network you could think of.

And then the poachers would start hunting me. Even if they didn't find me, I'd get a lot more attention than I wanted. I'd rather just live my life, please.

"Lucas?" I heard my mother call, but I barely heard her. I was just extremely shocked that this had happened, and hadn't been paying attention to what was going on outside of my own head.

"Yes" I grunted. My voice was a lot deeper than it had been as a human.

"Come down and see me! You've been in your room all day!"

_She's going to find out eventually, _I thought. _But I'm going to delay that moment for as long as I can. I've got to come up with something, fast._

"I'm taking a piss!" I yelled back. It was a believable lie at least, but it wouldn't buy me too much time.

"Okay. Come down when you're done".

I gulped once more, knowing that escape was impossible from this situation. No matter what, my mother would know that I'd done what that guy in the legend had done, turned into a Lucario. And then she'd probably call the hospital and get them to examine me again. I was scared of what they might find.

Not to mention, if I left the house in this state, there was no doubt that someone, surely, would eventually get a picture of me and put it on social media. At that point, the secret would be out.

But what other option did I have? My bathroom door didn't have a lock on it, and even if did, my mother would become highly suspicious if she thought I was in there way too long, particularly if I refused to get out.

_I might as well tell her now. _The thought of doing that felt like ripping my heart right out of my chest, but it was, sadly, probably the best option. At least then she wouldn't think less of me.

"Mom! Can you come in?" I yelled so that she'd hear me. It wasn't like me to use an extremely loud voice when indoors, so I suspected that she'd realize something was up at this point.

I heard the sound of footsteps upstairs, and then my door was opened. "What's - oh my".

She was looking at me, mouth wide open, clearly shocked that I was a Lucario now. Of course, it's not like she'd be anything else.

For a few seconds, I thought she'd say something like, _What have you done with Lucas? _That would have been an extremely cliche thing for her to say, much like something that would be said in a fairy tale.

Instead, she said, "Are you Lucas?"

I nodded. In my new, gruffer voice, I said, "I turned into a Lucario, Mom. I turned into a motherfucking Lucario".

"I don't even know what to say" she replied. "I suppose that we'll have a lot to explain to your father when he gets home".

* * *

A few hours later, my father arrived home from work and saw what had happened. If I do say so myself, he damn near had a heart attack as soon as he'd caught a glimpse of me.

It seemed that the news media hadn't heard about the events yet, but it was only a matter of time. Eventually, I'd have to leave the house, whether to go back to my internship or to return my summer reading book to the library. If nothing else, people would wonder why I'd seemingly disappeared, and that might compel me to reveal myself to the world.

Fortunately, tomorrow was my day off from the internship, so I wouldn't have to do anything outside of the house then. I could put off the big reveal for one more day.

I had told my parents that, in the interest of not being seen by any of the neighbors, we should eat dinner in the basement. There were windows there, but only garden-level windows, and it would be rather difficult for one to view my new form through them if they weren't specifically looking for me.

They obliged, and so my mother served grilled chicken and asparagus to us. It all looked delicious, and I found that I was even more excited about meat than usual.

"I'm telling you, our grocery bills are going to practically triple" my mother said. Turning to my father, she told him, "Gavin, they say Lucario burn 9,000 calories a day".

"Indeed, that is the case" I said. "Honestly, I'm impressed that you remember all of that from school".

My parents both laughed. "We might be old, Lucas," my father told me, "but we're not _that _old".

"Whatever" I replied. "But in all seriousness, this is quite a problem. What do you think we're going to do about it?"

Oftentimes, when you're just a kid, you think your parents are unbeatable titans that can solve any problem. You think that there's nothing they can't handle, and, more importantly, that they have all the answers.

So it was quite alarming to me to see that my parents both appeared utterly stumped. My father was scratching his chin, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

"I really don't know, Lucas" my mother said after a long silence. "We'll figure something out. You're going to be able to live your life as a Lucario. Pokemon do have equal status to humans. Try not to worry too much about it".

As soon as there had been that long pause in the conversation, I'd been worried. No matter what my mother said, no matter what she did, I wasn't going to relax until I had absolute certainty that everything would be all right.

But it wasn't going to come, and I knew that.

Later, getting into bed, I had to be careful not to crush my new tail as I was lying down. This wasn't an easy task, simply because I wasn't used to it. Eventually, if I was a Lucario for long enough, I'd probably acclimate to the new difficulties associated with my new life, but clearly not yet.

I stayed up for a while, tossing and turning, with an endless amount of what-ifs in my mind. Not only was I now a Lucario, I was a Lucario with white fur. I was sure that any number of poachers would quite literally kill for a bit of my hide.

Eventually, I managed to fall asleep, and I had my second nightmare in as many nights.

In my dream, I was in my new Lucario form, running across a barren rocky path. My feet might have been fairly hardy in this body, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt a little bit to run across the rock.

I didn't know why I was so desperate to run, but I had a sense of impending doom, as though I were being pursued by an evil force.

Suddenly, meteors started falling from the sky, and I had to run carefully to avoid getting crushed by one of them. I remembered hearing that if someone is shooting at you, it's a good idea to run in a zigzag motion so that they'll have a harder time hitting you. I hoped that the logic was the same with meteors.

Pretty soon, I was out of breath. I knew that Lucario had excellent stamina, but I also knew that this was only a dream, so it didn't have to obey the same "rules" that real life did.

I willed myself to wake up, just like I had last night. But I couldn't!

_Okay, this is genuinely terrifying. Maybe it isn't a nightmare after all._

Eventually, I tripped over a loose rock and fell to the ground. I tried to get up, but found that I couldn't. Something was keeping me locked in this position.

Before I could find out what was bearing down on me, my eyelids snapped open.

I sat bolt upright in bed, a cold sweat covering my face.

_Just a dream. Open my eyes, yeah, it was only just a dream. _

That didn't relax me as much as it should have, but it was still hugely relieving to know that no serious harm had come to me.

_Well, other than the fact that I'm a Lucario. _That part, of course, had not been a dream. It was real.

I got up out of bed and walked toward my window to see what time of day it was. That was what would decide my next course of action.

To my surprise, the sun had already come up; I'd slept through the night in spite of my nightmare. But that wasn't my only surprise.

I'd known it was coming. I just didn't expect it to be so soon.

Crowding in my front yard, all holding microphones, was a literal mob of journalists and news anchors. Vans were parked, as far as I could tell, all the way down my street. The various members of the news media all had hungry expressions on their faces.

And all of them were looking at me as though I were a feast spread out at Thanksgiving dinner.


	5. The Interview

**I'd like to thank you guys for 15 followers and 400+ views. With that, let's begin!**

* * *

Almost immediately, all of the general dread I'd been harboring for the last couple of days condensed into a specific dread of what was to come in the next few minutes. I was peering out of my window, looking at the news anchors in the yard below me, and knowing that, much like having to tell my mother last night about turning into a Lucario, there was going to be no way out of this one.

Being that I was now a Lucario, I saw no need to wear clothes anymore, so I hadn't worn pajamas to bed. There was no need to get dressed, and, while I could have brushed my teeth (for Lucario still had those), I didn't feel like it at that moment.

I heard banging on my front door, which my parents and I kept locked at all times unless one of us was out on the porch enjoying the sunshine. As much as I didn't want to open that door, I had a feeling that it would be broken down if they continued doing that.

The second I passed the window in front of my stairwell's landing, I saw one of the journalists clapping. Clearly they had seen me coming down said stairwell and were very excited that they'd get an interview with me.

_Am I going to give them an interview? Yes, I will. I have to._

I opened the door and stepped onto the porch. It wasn't easy to find space on the porch to stand, because there were literally dozens of reporters. It was like a swarm of bees, and my house was the hive.

"Go easy on me, guys" I said, trying to sound as casual as possible. "If you just hem me in like that, I won't be able to answer any of your questions. Please, just let me speak".

I wished that I could create an Aura Sphere and brandish it in front of the reporters, threatening to fire it if they came too close to me. Sadly, I just didn't know how; after all, I'd only been a Lucario since yesterday afternoon.

Fortunately, the swarm did dissipate slightly. Perhaps _dissipate _is the wrong word, but they did seem to get the message. And I did have a point; if they didn't give me my space, none of them would be able to hear me.

_Am I just going to pour everything out like that? Tell them everything I know?_

Unfortunately, I saw no other option. If there had been an opportunity to escape, any at all, you can rest assured that I would have taken it in a heartbeat. As it was, though, I felt trapped. The only way out of this one was, sadly, to tell them everything I knew...which, admittedly, wasn't very much at all.

"Okay" I announced, in a voice as loud as I could muster; my mouth tasted like sand paper. "Who wants to go first?"

It had been a mistake to say that; there was practically a fight to get to the front of the line. For a moment, I half thought that the reporters were going to go all Hunger Games on each other.

Luckily, that didn't happen. Instead, a man from Vulpix News made his way up to me, and he held the microphone up to my chest. Clearly, he wanted me to speak.

"So...what is your full name?" he asked me.

"Lucas Zantry Enfield" I responded. I saw no reason to answer that question; with the availability of websites that essentially amount to cyber-stalking platforms, it wouldn't be hard for them to find that out anyway.

"And your age?"

"Eighteen".

"When did you transform into a Lucario? How long has it been that this secret has been kept from us?"

By now, I was getting thoroughly irritated with all of these questions. I wanted to sink right through my porch into the Earth's crust, and then build a new life for myself underground, where no one would care that I was once a human.

I reluctantly answered the question. "I transformed yesterday afternoon, around three or so".

At this point, I was convinced that one of the news anchors was thinking, _Wow, he's been able to keep this secret from the world for so long. How did he manage that?_

Well, it was out now, and, once I had opened the Pandora's box of information, there was going to be no end to the conspiracy theories that would no doubt spring up out of the ground to try and explain why this had happened.

Then came the question I'd been dreading.

"Why did you turn into a Lucario? Do you have any idea what might have happened?"

I considered telling him about the locket I'd found on my bed, the one with the cryptic message about the animal inside of me. There was no way that it was a coincidence...but had it been that that had caused my transformation?

_No, it can't be. I only touched it, I didn't wear it. I definitely didn't EAT it; eww, that would be gross._

_More to the point, I started having those symptoms the day before I saw the locket, so that wouldn't make any sense now, would it?_

I noticed that the reporter was starting to appear increasingly impatient with me. He couldn't wait to have his question answered, but, unfortunately, he would _need _to wait. I had to keep thinking about what I was going to say and how I was going to say it so as to mitigate the fallout.

Eventually, I said, "I don't know. It just happened". That was true, but not the whole truth.

"Any specifics?"

_I was afraid of that._

"I suppose", I replied, "that there might have been signs beforehand". _Damn it, why did I SAY that? Have I learned NOTHING?_

"Such as..." the reporter asked. He was jamming the microphone towards my chest spike now, almost as if it were a knife he wanted to sink into my fur.

Now that I'd said that there had been signs, I saw no way out of this question. After biting the metaphorical bullet, I said, "I've been very hungry these last couple of days. And I mean _very _hungry, to the point that I fainted yesterday at work".

The reporter from Vulpix News, the one questioning me, gasped audibly at that revelation. Really, who wouldn't have? Before this, I had been hesitant to speak except when I was spoken to, but I felt the urge to say the following:

"I've read that Lucario burn up to nine thousand calories a day, so it's not surprising that I've been so hungry. I'm just adapting to my new form, I guess".

"Indeed" the reporter replied. "That could definitely be a reason, and it's good that you don't have diabetes or something like that".

I nodded. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have breakfast to make, and a life to live. All of you, please leave me alone".

I didn't know what I'd expected to happen after saying that. Perhaps they would disperse the way I wanted them to, or else that would egg them on to get more and more answers out of me, answers I didn't have.

"Okay" the Vulpix News anchor replied. "I think that's enough questions for now. Guys, he wants to be left alone, and can you blame him? Imagine if you'd just turned into a white-furred Lucario".

Sighing, I thanked the anchor, offering to shake his hand, which he declined. I could have hugged him, I was so grateful that he was going to let me live my life, at least for now.

Turning around, I closed the front door and headed back inside. I went back up to my room, where I took a knee and watched outside my window to make sure that the reporters were making good on their promise to get off my lawn.

Thankfully, they were. It was a good thing for them, too, because, while I didn't know how to use any of a Lucario's move set yet, I could have at least gotten them arrested for trespassing. I wouldn't even need to provide any evidence, because their interview with me would be all over the news within a few hours, probably a few minutes.

"Lucas? Are you there?"

I turned around to see that my mother was behind me; she'd entered my room without me realizing it. I turned to face her.

"Of course I'm here, but why would you need to...ah, never mind. How did you sleep?"

"I slept pretty well" my mother replied. "Especially considering everything".

I nodded; I really didn't know what else to do. A few seconds later, my mother said something else, something I hadn't been expecting, but I suppose I should have been expecting it.

"Dr. Donnelly called a few minutes ago, while you were out there giving an interview to the news anchors. He gave me the results of your blood test and EKG".

"What did they say?" I asked her, dreading the answer.

"The EKG was normal. There's nothing wrong with your heart whatsoever. Of course, it's a Lucario's heart now, but that's beside the point".

_Is it, though? _I wondered, but that question was immediately replaced with a general feeling of apprehension. For if she had to specify that the EKG had been normal, that meant that the blood test probably wasn't.

"What did the blood test say?" I asked, dreading the answer.

I could tell that my mother was trying hard to prevent her voice from breaking, but she wasn't entirely successful in doing so. This caused me a lot more worry; what on Earth could they have found?

"Dr. Donnelly thinks that there's something in your blood that hasn't been detected in a human's blood in a very long time. He was worried enough about it that he told the Greater Pastoria Laboratory about the result, and they'll be coming tomorrow to interview you again. But they're definitely concerned".

I gulped. It often seemed like my doctor had all the answers, even if that wasn't entirely true. If he was stumped, let alone worried, about something in my blood, that was definitely cause for alarm in my book.

"What does he think it is?" I asked my mother, once more dreading the answer.

"He thinks it might be aura. You know, the substance that is running through the bloodstream of every single Lucario on the planet".

_Of course there's aura in my bloodstream, _I thought. _I'm a fucking Lucario now. This is great. Just great._

"I'm not happy" I said. "I really wish I could just live a normal life. Why does that have to be taken away from me so soon?"

My mother began stroking my back like she did when I was much younger and feeling nauseous. "It'll be okay, Lucas. It'll be okay".

"Are you saying that because you know it to be so or because you just really want me to think that?" I asked her. It came out a little harsher than I meant it to.

"Both. I have faith that we'll be able to get through everything. Do you want me to make pancakes again today?"

"No thanks" I replied. "I think I'll just have cereal".

She nodded again. "You sure? It's no trouble at all to fire up the griddle, and I'll do anything for you. I know how hard this must be on you".

It was now my turn to nod. "I am. Just not in the mood for pancakes". Truth be told, I didn't know if I'd even be able to eat cereal. I was so nervous about everything that the idea of eating anything at all made me feel like throwing up.

_But I have to eat, to keep my strength up. Might as well at least have cereal._

Making my way into the kitchen, I made myself a bowl of cereal. As I was eating it, I thought about the nightmare I'd had the previous night. Some evil force had been pursuing me, that much I knew.

_But what could it possibly be? Poachers?_

Poachers were definitely something I'd have to worry about in the future. Right now, though, I was more concerned with how my story would most likely be trending on every social media platform in existence. PokeTube, Twitter...it would be number one on both, for sure. Even amidst everything else happening in the world, an 18-year-old man turning into a white-furred Lucario would definitely be the most important story in the world.

I turned on my tablet computer, afraid of what I might find. As soon as I saw the news, I felt my stomach drop.

To my horror, one of the stories that had popped up in the news feed on my home screen was indeed the one I feared most. There was absolutely no mistaking it.

_An 18-year-old man from Gardenia, Sinnoh has transformed into a white-furred Lucario. Start your day here._

Clicking the home button, I swiped until I reached my Internet browser, and then I went to PokeTube. Just like I had thought, the breaking news section of PokeTube had my story plastered all over it, and it was nearing a hundred million views already. Not even the music videos from the most popular artists in the world achieved PokeTube fame that quickly.

Even the blizzards had faded largely into the background. It seemed that they were just an afterthought at this point, which, in light of a human turning into a Pokemon, might have been justifiable. However, I still couldn't shake the feeling that the two events were somehow connected.

It was the same story on Twitter. No one seemed to know or care about anything else. It had been less than half an hour since my interview, and yet the whole world seemed to know about my transformation. News never traveled that fast, but had there ever been anything more newsworthy? I didn't think so.

At first, I didn't think I would ever leave my house again. I didn't want more people to notice me out in the world than already had.

I then reminded myself that the story was trending already, and it didn't matter what I did, things would never go back to being normal. Therefore, I could just go out and show myself off. I'd heard the saying, "If you've got it, flaunt it", and, while that wasn't true in every case, maybe it would be true now.

_No, that would be stupid. There are going to be so many poachers who will take notice of me. I won't know who to trust._

That realization didn't make me feel good, to say the very least. As soon as I was done with my cereal, I made my way back up to my bedroom and shut the door. I had to think of my next move.

* * *

Eventually, I decided that I needed to find something to cheer myself up. It wasn't going to do to just be depressed for the rest of the day, let alone the rest of my life.

When I ate lunch with my parents that day, I discussed my idea with them, and they were hesitant to give me their blessing to do it. Unlike me, they were still squeamish on the idea of me leaving the house, even if I'd already been outed to the world as a white-furred Lucario.

What was the idea, you might ask?

Well, it was the idea of going out to dinner with one of my friends. Could you call her my best friend? Maybe not, but I remembered her having told me that, unlike many of my other friends, she wouldn't be going away on vacation with their families, or else working at a summer camp or something similar. She was available all summer.

Her name was Angelina Hawley, and I'll admit it; I had a crush on her. It was a fairly minor crush, and I didn't know if it would ever develop into more than just that. I also didn't know if my feelings were reciprocated, but I very much hoped they were.

"Do you know how to drive the car as a Lucario?" my mother asked me. "I can imagine that working the gas and brake pedals might be a little more difficult".

"I'm sure that I can figure it out" I replied. "Besides, how much harder can it be? It's not like they have to be on specific parts of the pedals. Plus, there are Lucario who drive cars".

"Okay then" my father replied. The reason we'd had that discussion was because having one of my parents drive me to the restaurant I had in mind, a relatively upscale steakhouse, was a non-starter. I was 18 years old, practically an adult, and had a driver's license; I wasn't going to have my mother drive me to my date!

_She's going to be very impressed with me, _I thought. _This is the type of restaurant you can only afford to eat at a couple of times a year, for very special occasions, it's that fancy._

After lunch, with my parents both having voiced their approval, I made the call.

"Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, banana phone" I said into the phone. There was no particular reason I said it every time except that I thought it was funny. It might have sounded childish, but I didn't particularly care.

It only took a few rings for someone to pick up. I'd gotten her at a good time.

"Hello? Who is this?" Judging by the voice, the person sounded much older and male, probably Angelina's father.

"I'm Lucas Enfield, Angelina's friend. Is she available right now".

"Sure" her father said. "Just hang on a moment".

The other line went quiet for about a minute as Angelina's father searched for his daughter. Eventually, he said, "Here she is".

"Hello, Lucas" Angelina said. Hearing her voice was a definite relief; we'd barely talked all summer as I'd been in the belly of the beast with my internship. "So are the rumors true or not?"

"What rumors?" I asked, dreading the answer. At the same time, however, I knew what she was talking about. What _else _would it have been?"

"I'm talking, of course, of the rumors that you transformed into a Lucario" she replied. "Did it happen or did it not?"

"It did" I replied. There was no reason to lie; that would just get us off on the wrong foot. But then again, maybe we already were.

"So what does it feel like, being a Lucario?"

That was a question that I hadn't quite been prepared to answer, because I hadn't given it much thought beyond the fact that I was now scared and worried all the time.

"I suppose that it's just like being human. Except I'm a lot hungrier, I have a lot more energy, and it's really hot underneath all this fur".

That was another reason I was hesitant to go outside. It was late July, the hottest time of the year in southern Sinnoh, and temperatures outside were approaching ninety degrees. If I went outside in this weather, in my current state, I would most likely roast.

I heard Angelina chuckle on the other end. "Yeah, I can imagine that it would be hot. Anyway, why did you want to call me? Is there something on your mind?"

I was glad that we'd gotten the part about me transforming into a Pokemon out of the way quickly. Now we could deal with more important matters.

"Yes" I replied. "I was thinking of going out to dinner with you later at Le Resto-Grill".

Angelina gasped. "Really? That sounds amazing, I'd love to go!"

Angelina's family wasn't poor, but they weren't rich either; they were probably middle class, roughly. I'd grown up upper middle class and had no doubt been to steak houses more frequently than she had. I wondered if that was the reason she was so quick to accept my offer.

_I really hope I'm not flaunting it too much, _I thought to myself. I didn't have the courage to say it out loud to Angelina.

"Okay. I'll make the reservation. I'll see you there at...is six a good time for you?"

"That works out well".

I'd gotten what I wanted; Angelina was willing to go on a dinner date with me. Nevertheless, I was still highly nervous, and my palms were sweating like a beast. (And yes, I know that I was a beast now, but that's beside the point).

After retrieving my computer from its charging station next to my bed, I went to the restaurant's website and found that they did indeed have space available at the time we wanted. I booked a reservation for two at 6 PM.

This was going to be amazing!

* * *

**For the record, "Le Resto-Grill" is French for steak house. I couldn't think of a better name besides Del Frisco's, which is the name of a steak house chain here in the real world. **

**I would love it if you guys would review and tell me what you guys think of this chapter. I can't wait to see your feedback, because it means a lot to me.**

**Until next time, this has been SnowLucario.**


	6. Bad Dates

**Although I'm posting this on the morning of August 12, I actually finished this chapter last night. This is the longest one yet (roughly 4,500 words). It's not that impressive, but it's longer than anything I've written in what feels like forever, so I'm quite satisfied with it.**

**I'm really happy that I've taken this hobby up again, because it's one that I've found I enjoy quite a lot. There's just nothing quite like typing up your ideas and seeing them come to life on your computer screen. But that's enough about my love letter to writing.**

**The title of this chapter, of course, comes from a famous movie scene from the first Indiana Jones film. And I'll admit it, I never watched more than the first Indiana Jones film. **

**With that out of the way, enjoy Chapter 6 of Snowbound: Volume 1!**

* * *

Although I had gotten the restaurant I'd wanted, and was glad to be spending time with Angelina, I'm not going to pretend like I had nothing to worry about on this date of sorts. (Was it even a date? Well, whatever, I'll say that it was).

There were two main worries I had, and those were cameras and poachers.

If I didn't take some back roads to get to the steak house, there was no question about it; I was going to be seen by a lot of people. If the meal was supposed to be just between me and Angelina, it would certainly feel like an invasion of our privacy if the news media watched us the whole time.

The cameras might have only been annoying, but poachers were far more dangerous. I knew that Lucario were very strong fighters, and their aura allowed them to sense a lot of different things that were hidden to the naked eye. However, I hadn't been able to hone either of those skills yet; nobody had taught me how. That, of course, made me even more vulnerable than I would have been already.

And I was already pretty vulnerable. Not only was I a Lucario, but I was also a former human, and had a different fur color than most Lucario. That was going to put an even larger target on my back.

_I need to learn how to fight like a Lucario, _I thought. If I could defend myself, that would go a long way towards making me feel just a little safer.

I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind right now, though. The fact was, while this was certainly an upscale steak house, there would be plenty of other witnesses. If a poacher should try and kidnap me, other people would see what was happening and put a stop to it, or at least be able to prosecute the poacher.

Therefore, I decided that it was unlikely that I'd be in too much danger tonight. Even so, you never knew, so I decided that I was going to take only the less populated roads as much as possible on my way to the restaurant. I knew my way around Gardenia well enough, having lived here my whole life, that it wouldn't be too much of an issue.

At 5:30, I gave my parents good-bye hugs and went out the door. After getting in my car, I made the twenty-minute drive to the steak house, which was closer to the downtown area of Pastoria City. It would have been only 15 minutes on the normal route, but, as stated above, I wasn't taking the normal route.

Even with the extra time, I had ten minutes to wait before our reservation. I spent them in my car, after turning the engine off. I looked around for Angelina, but there was no sign of her. That didn't mean that she wasn't there, but I did not know what her car looked like, or its license plate number.

_Maybe that's something I should know, if she is to be my potential girlfriend._

I felt my heart flutter slightly. I wasn't sure if this qualified as a date, but it sure felt like it. Truth be told, I was rather nervous, because I'd never been on a date before.

Growing up, I'd always been fairly socially awkward. While I'd known Angelina since kindergarten (Gardenia was a small town, after all), I'd never had the courage to ask her, or any other girl, out. That of course had changed today.

At 6:00 PM, I got out of my car and walked into the restaurant as casually as I could. Even with my efforts to appear casual, I noticed that I was getting a few glances that looked rather greedy, and they sent chills down my spine.

Poachers? Probably not. More likely, they were just people who were surprised to see a white-furred Lucario out and about. Lucario with other fur colors besides blue are very rare, and thus weren't something you saw every day.

I noticed that Angelina was already there. She was blonde, with blue eyes and hair that went down the back of her neck in one long braid. She was a few inches shorter than me, but still taller than the average female. If I do say so myself, she was pretty good-looking, but I suppose that is rather subjective.

The atmosphere inside the restaurant was rather fancy. It was made to appear much like a wine cellar that you'd see in the wine country of the Kalos region, with bottles upon bottles of various different types of wines stacked on top of one another. There were supports in place to make sure that none of them fell down, which was definitely a good thing.

"So the rumors are true" Angelina said. It took me a few seconds to realize that that sentence was directed at me.

"What rumors?" I asked her, shrugging my shoulders. On some level, I knew that I was just playing around with her; I knew exactly what Angelina was talking about, and she knew that I knew.

"That you turned into a Lucario".

I nodded. "That did indeed happen. Don't worry, though, it's not contagious. If I should accidentally scratch you with one of my spikes, you're not going to turn into one as well".

Angelina furrowed her eyebrows. "Did I ever say that I was worried about that?"

I was going to respond, but, to this day, I don't know what I would have said. That's because the host came by and said that our table was ready. He did give me a judgy side-eye as we were making our way over to the table that had been reserved for us, so I knew he knew about my story.

_Of course, though. Everyone knows about it by now. It's been the number one trending story everywhere._

We sat down at the table, and I ordered my favorite beverage, which was root beer. Angelina ordered lemonade, and the waiter said he'd be back with a basket of bread. For whatever reason, since I'd become a Lucario, I'd been craving steak, so I was very glad we were at a restaurant specializing in that.

_A nice big, juicy filet mignon sounds wonderful right about now, _I thought to myself. _And that's what I'm going to get._

"I asked you this before", Angelina said eventually, "but what is it like being a Lucario? Besides just the physical aspects".

I'd already told her how I felt hot, energetic, and hungry, but I tried to think of more things to say. We were in a public place, so I whispered my response to her.

Leaning in close to her ear, I said very quietly, "Well, it's really weird. I'm now the center of attention everywhere I go...which, admittedly, isn't too many places. This is actually the first time I've left the house since I transformed".

"Oh wow" she replied. "You must be pretty restless, having been cooped up inside for so long".

I nodded. "You bet".

The waiter came back with our bread basket and drinks, and then he asked for our orders. Each of us got filet mignon with a truffle cheese baked potato, and then he took our menus back.

By this time my mouth was watering like crazy, and I could barely keep it shut. There are many ways to endear yourself to a girl, but drooling all over the table on your first date, especially at a fancy restaurant like this one, isn't one of them.

The restaurant got more and more crowded every minute, so I knew I had to be careful about what I would say. Anything I said might be overheard by someone else, and I'll admit to sometimes being a person who struggles to use his "indoor voice". My parents had told me that it's always best to use the appropriate voice for the current situation, but sometimes I get just a little too excited.

For a few minutes, nothing of interest happened. We simply sipped our drinks, and I noticed a few unflattering glances towards me. As someone who usually hung back both in school and in life, always preferring to sit in the back of the class, this wasn't something I was used to. It definitely wasn't something I enjoyed.

And then something happened.

As Angelina was lifting her glass of lemonade up to her lips, she accidentally dropped it. Almost immediately, my heart stopped, but, in spite of being shocked, I was able to think quite clearly.

Using my lightning Lucario reflexes, I was able to grab it before it hit the ground. Unfortunately, I scratched Angelina slightly with the spike on the back of my paw.

"Sorry" I said, holding my paw up to my mouth like a child caught stealing from the cookie jar. "Didn't mean to scratch you right there".

Angelina pointed at herself, now sopping wet from the lemonade that had spilled all over her shirt. "Don't be. It's my own damn fault for being such a clumsy ass".

I was barely able to resist chuckling at that, but she grabbed a napkin and wiped the lemonade off of her clothes. I offered to ask the server, when he got back, for a bandage, but Angelina refused, saying that she could take care of it herself.

She appeared to be right; her wound wasn't bleeding too much, and was barely visible anymore even just a minute later.

_I really hope I didn't accidentally transfer some aura to her as I scratched her. But why would that be a bad thing? After all, we ALL have aura, all human beings. It's just aura-sensing capabilities that are exclusive to Lucario._

We didn't talk too much for the next few minutes. I still couldn't believe that that had happened, and I desperately hoped that there were no adverse consequences from being scratched with a Lucario's hand spike.

The amount of looks I was getting had increased at least fivefold. Being a white-furred Lucario definitely attracted a lot of attention as was, but this was very much exacerbating the situation, to say the very least. I almost wanted to melt right through the floor from sheer embarrassment.

Of course, if I did melt through the floor, I wouldn't have gotten to enjoy the filet mignon, the truffle cheese baked potato, or the apple pie dessert I was thinking of getting. That was what kept me grounded and not running right out the door; that and the fact that doing the latter would create even _more _attention.

Soon enough, the waiter came back with both of our steaks and each of our baked potatoes, and Angelina and myself dug into the meal. It was just as good as I had expected, and just as good as the hefty price tag for the meal would have suggested.

_My father will be okay with paying for this, _I thought to myself. _He's definitely excited that I'm on my first date...if you can even call it that._

Thus far, I figured that I'd rate the date a six out of ten. It was definitely awkward to go out as a Lucario, but the food at the steak house was pretty damn amazing. It had also been quite embarrassing to scratch Angelina on accident after she dropped the glass.

_Why did you have to do that?, _I practically yelled at myself. _She could have caught it on her own. How sexist are you, Lucas?_

"I don't know why", Angelina replied, "but I feel like I could eat a lot more than just this".

I looked down at my own steak, then at hers. I was usually a pretty fast eater, and half of my 16-ounce steak was already in my stomach. To my surprise, only a quarter of Angelina's steak remained on her plate.

"This steak isn't small in the slightest" I said. "I'll order dessert if you want. I'll order it for both of us".

Angelina nodded and then went back to eating her steak. I noticed how she devoured it very quickly, her face quite close to the plate, in a way that would not be befitting of someone eating at a fancy restaurant.

Almost like...an animal.

_I mean, humans are animals too. But I mean a wild animal, not a human._

Soon, she was done with the steak, and had moved onto her baked potato. She scarfed that food item down just as quickly as she'd practically inhaled the steak.

I'd seen Angelina eat before, in the school cafeteria. At least that I had seen, she had never eaten this much food this quickly. And yet I could see the hunger in her eyes as she was almost done with the potato before I'd even started it.

My potato was delicious, but the whole time I was eating it, I couldn't stop thinking about the implications of just how hungry Angelina was. If my theory was right...well, I didn't want to think about it.

Eventually, the waiter came back and took away our plates. By now we'd both finished eating, and he asked us if we wanted dessert. Both of us ordered a slice of apple pie with vanilla ice cream, which the waiter said would be at our table shortly.

"When did you start being so hungry?" I asked her. I tried not to sound rude as I was saying this, but I knew that it was very much possible it came out as insensitive. "If you don't mind me asking, of course" I added, trying to recover from it a little.

"I don't know. Just a few minutes ago".

I felt my heart skip a beat. _Just because she just started being hungry a few minutes ago might not mean what you think it means._

_But maybe it does._

The waiter came back with our slices of apple pie, but I couldn't bring myself to take a bite of mine. Not with the way Angelina was looking at my slice with an expression of hunger.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. I thought I knew what was wrong, but I didn't want to be the one to say it out loud.

"I hate to ask this, but...could I have your dessert too?"

Normally, this would have been an unthinkable thing to ask me; I'd always say no. However, I really was starting to suspect my theory was correct, and, if so, I knew how much Angelina would be suffering if she didn't have it.

"Sure" I replied. "You can. Are you really that hungry, though? You had bread, lemonade, steak, and a baked potato, and now you want two pieces of apple pie?"

She nodded, with an expression on her face that spoke of absolute guilt, so much guilt that there couldn't possibly be any more no matter what.

"Okay then". I pushed my dessert plate over to her side of the table, and she started greedily eating both slices of pie.

To say that this was alarming to watch would be an understatement. However, I told myself not to jump to conclusions right away. It could be that, or it could have been something completely different. Even so...that was a _lot _of food.

I watched how she ate, much like a dog and not like a human at all. If I had gotten stares for being a white-furred Lucario before, now Angelina was getting just as many stares for the way she devoured her dessert. Part of me felt guilty for being glad the spotlight was off of me, at least temporarily.

"All right" she said, once she was finished with both slices of apple pie. "Are you going to pay the tab?"

I nodded. "Technically, my father is. We're having them charge it to his credit card. Don't worry; you won't have to pay a thing".

"Thanks" she replied. "And sorry for eating your pie too. Do you want me to stay here and order some for you?"

I shook my head. "Really, it's fine. I can get ice cream or something at home. I just...want you to be happy".

As soon as I'd said the last sentence, I regretted it. It made it sound like I was already considering Angelina my girlfriend, when it was only the first date. Oh, how crushes can really impact the way you see the world.

"All right" she said. "I'll see you soon, Lucas. You're really nice, you know that?"

I could practically feel myself blush at her saying that. Eventually, I waved good-bye at her retreating form as she left the restaurant. I then got up from my chair, told the waiter my father's credit card information (which I'd memorized months ago) and left to go to my car.

The drive home was uneventful, but there were several times during it that I nearly crashed the car, when I was so distracted by what I'd seen at the restaurant. Namely, the way Angelina had eaten like a pig.

_Or a Lucario._

Okay, perhaps the drive back wasn't so uneventful after all. I did eventually get home, and I turned on the TV in order to catch the latest news about the case of the transforming teenager. Okay, that wasn't the official name of the case, and I hadn't seen it used anywhere, but, when you think about it, it does sound fitting, doesn't it?

In any case, I turned to CNN and then Vulpix News. I paused on the latter, waiting for them to get past footage of another blizzard in Snowpoint City (which was apparently far more severe than they usually were at this time of year, and had practically shut the whole city down).

_Okay...there's definitely something going on here. Did the spirit invading my dreams the other night have anything to do with this?_

A couple weeks ago, if you'd asked me if spirits existed, I would have told you absolutely not. I certainly didn't believe in them, at any rate. But in a world where humans could turn into Pokemon, it was certainly possible that spirits had an impact on the world. You just couldn't rule anything out anymore.

Vulpix News was running a segment about me and Angelina at dinner together. My stomach dropped as soon as I saw the way she was eating, because it was so ghastly. Angelina was seventeen years old, and surely past her growth spurt by now. That kind of hunger just wasn't natural.

_Might it be supernatural, then?_

"Jim, what's the latest update on Lucas Enfield, the young man who transformed into a Lucario yesterday? What's he up to?"

"Well", the other reporter, evidently named Jim, replied, "just less than an hour ago, he was seen at Le Resto-Grill in downtown Pastoria City, eating dinner with a teenage girl. Why he would have been foolish enough to leave the house in this form is beyond me, but I can't read his mind".

"Any information on who this girl might be?"

"The girl has been identified as Angelina Sarah Hawley, who has been attending school with Mr. Enfield since kindergarten. It appears that they may have been on a date when this footage was taken".

I felt my blood boil at that last sentence. In my own opinion, it was journalistic malpractice to give away information that was both personal and not a threat to public safety if it remained under wraps. I certainly didn't think it necessary to talk so much about my private life to the public.

"Oh, so Lucas Enfield has gotten himself a girlfriend in spite of all of this?" asked the other reporter, who was female. "How lucky of him".

I turned off the TV. If I watched too much more of the news segments on me, I might die of embarrassment, or else go insane with the amount of anger I was harboring right now. For the sake of my own life and mental health, I decided that I didn't need to see any more.

It was then that the phone rang. I sprang up off of the couch like the clown inside a jack-in-the-box and made my way over to the phone as quickly as I could without upsetting any of the chairs at the kitchen table.

The call was from my mother. "Is this Lucas?" she asked me.

"Yeah" I replied. "How's it going?" That was a phrase I often used to continue a conversation.

"Pretty well. Your father and I went out to dinner myself. We'll be back at about ten. How was your date?"

I felt my face turn red once more. It's one thing when a stranger calls it a date, but it's quite another when your own mother does the same.

"It was kind of weird. I'd never been on a date before. All in all, I'd say it went okay, but there is one more thing I want to tell you". I told her the story of how Angelina was eating so greedily and had asked for my slice of apple pie out of hunger.

"Hmmm. That's definitely worrisome" my mother told me. "But, like you said, it could just be nothing. We'll have to wait and see".

That was one of the things I least liked to do; _wait and see. _I liked to know my fate in a hurry, thank you very much. I wasn't too keen on having to wait to find out what was going on, and if Angelina was indeed going to transform into a Lucario.

"Yeah" I replied. "And it's all over the news now. Perhaps I shouldn't leave the house again".

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Eventually, my mother replied with, "I don't think I'd go that far. Perhaps you shouldn't frequent such public places anymore, but I see no reason why you shouldn't go out every now and then. You might as well go live in a prison underground somewhere".

_You might as well go live in a prison underground somewhere._

I don't know why, but that line really resonated with me. While I'm not a huge risk-taker, I definitely wanted to be able to live my life and not let whatever evil force had turned me into a Lucario take that away from me. That would be letting them win, and I certainly didn't want to let them win.

"All right, then. I'll probably head to bed before you get back, today was quite a day".

"Okay then. Sleep well. I'll see you in the morning".

I nodded. Then, remembering that my mother couldn't see me nod, I added, "We'll figure this out. And, eventually, life will go back to normal". I honestly said that last line to convince myself of it more than my mother, but it worked for its intended purpose. It was as if the more I said it, the more I could make myself believe it. Fake it 'till you make it, that's what they say.

My mother sighed, a sign I saw as ominous. "See you in the morning, Lucas".

I then hung up. Even though I'd gotten to go out on a date with Angelina at a nice restaurant, today, as a whole, hadn't been a good day. All I wanted was to go to bed soon and put today behind me.

First, though, I wanted the dessert that had been taken away from me. I went over to the freezer and made myself a large bowl of vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately, we had no apple pie, so I had to make do with what we had.

Against my own better judgment, I turned the TV back on. Almost immediately, I wished I hadn't.

Since I hadn't changed the channel before I'd turned the TV off last time, it was still on Vulpix News. A horrible scene was taking place on the screen before me, one that was like a car crash. It was horrible, but no matter what, you just couldn't look away.

A house was engulfed in flames, and various water-type Pokemon, as well as human firefighters, had been dispatched to that address to put the fire out. Based on the fact that the house was right next to the beach, I deduced that it was probably in the Sunyshore City area. It was just a gut feeling I had, but, in my experience, gut feelings tend to work out.

_It can't be an attack from a poacher, now, can it be?_

As much as I didn't want to believe it, my gut was telling me the opposite. That this attack had been motivated by a desire to capture a white-furred Lucario, and that I had been the intended target. The house in the news coverage even looked a lot like my house, too, same color and size and everything else.

I didn't know who or where this house was. I didn't know who the arsonist was. But I did know one thing.

From here on out, I would have to constantly be on my guard, no matter what.


	7. Misery Loves Company

**Decided to post this a day earlier than I'd planned at first, just because I like hearing what people have to say about my chapters. If anyone wants to contact me on Discord, the tag is SnowLucario#5443; there I'll give updates on when chapters will be out and such. Plus if you just want to chat, I'm totally down for that.**

**Also, if anyone has any OC ideas for this story, just PM me with their name, gender, species, personality, background, etc., and I'll get to work and fit them somewhere in the story. I'm not running out of ideas, far from it, but I'd like to hear yours.**

**Here's Chapter 7 of Snowbound: Volume 1!**

* * *

Mercifully, I didn't have any nightmares that night when I went to sleep. Surely, between the news media that had come to my house, the greedy fashion in which Angelina had eaten her steak and baked potato, and the news about the poacher who had burned up a home, there would have been some fuel to add to the fire that was my nightmares.

However, it was a dreamless sleep, and I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed for a change. I felt like I was ready to face the day, no matter what it might bring.

I brushed my fangs and then went downstairs to find that my mother was already up, even though she'd stayed out a lot later than I had.

"Good morning" I told her. "How did you sleep?"

My mother shook her head. "Not that well" she replied. "I just couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. A sense of impending doom, if you will".

I realized that I hadn't been able to sense her emotions using aura. Had I been able to use aura properly, I would have been able to realize that she hadn't slept well and was rather stressed out.

And that thought made me feel rather vulnerable, even more so than I already did. I had all the drawbacks of being a white-furred Lucario, with none of the positives. Until I learned how to use aura and fight like a Lucario, I would be pretty much defenseless against anything that came to attack me.

In other words, I was a sitting duck. Being a sitting duck made me think that my mother's "sense of impending doom" was entirely justified.

"I'm really sorry to hear that" I replied, because I really didn't know what else to say.

My mother shook her head again. "It's really not your fault, Lucas. You didn't choose this".

"You're right" I replied. "I didn't choose this. I didn't wake up the other morning and think 'Okay, I really want to turn into a Lucario today and be on the news!'"

She laughed, and that made me feel better, albeit only marginally.

For me and my parents, life was about to get a hell of a lot harder, so the laughter was short-lived. After that, my mother just stood at the counter, making herself some coffee.

I don't drink coffee. Even as a human, I found that I had enough energy without it, and, as a Lucario, I definitely had enough energy without it. I don't understand how people can put up with just how bitter it tastes, because, to me, it's absolutely disgusting.

After making myself a bowl of cereal, I sat down at the table and, using my tablet computer, scrolled through the news. Almost immediately after I saw the latest, my stomach dropped.

To my horror, the image of Angelina leaning over her apple pie, her face covered in vanilla ice cream, had now gone viral all over Twitter. Any number of Internet memes were being made of it, and that made my blood boil. It seemed like lots of people were just trying to use my personal life to exploit for their own gain, and that was more than a little maddening.

"Mom?" I said. "You should look at this".

She came over to the table with her mug of coffee and looked at the tablet's screen with me. She chuckled slightly at the image of Angelina eating like a pig at the trough.

"Mom, this really is no laughing matter!" I exclaimed, somewhat exasperated with her.

"I know" she replied. "Sorry for laughing. It just looks so cute, the way she's eating".

Okay…

There was a long, awkward silence after that. I personally didn't think the way Angelina had eaten was cute at all, nothing remotely so about it. All it did was make me suspect that the fate that had befallen me was going to take a shot at her.

Eventually, my mother said, "I honestly don't know how you do it. Being the center of attention all the time sounds really tiring, not to mention annoying".

I snorted. "Oh, trust me, it is both of those things".

"I mean, how do you stay so strong? How did you hide it all for so long?"

I shrugged. "Sometimes, when you really have to do something, you're somehow able to muster up whatever you need for it".

We sat in silence for quite a while, before my mother said that it was about time for me to head to Cadillac Jack's for my internship, a thought that made me gulp with dread.

You see, the events of the last couple of days had really taken my internship at the diner out of my mind. I hadn't been giving it much thought, but I think I can be forgiven for that; when you've just turned into a Pokemon, it's not exactly the highest priority to ponder the job you hate.

I looked at the clock, and I found that if I didn't leave within the next few minutes, I was likely to be late for work. Traffic only increased the later it got, and it wouldn't do to be late for my internship. My supervisor wouldn't be happy with me.

_But maybe if he fires me, that would be a good thing. The internship at Cadillac Jack's isn't exactly what I'd prefer to be doing. I don't need the extra stress, not when I'm a Lucario._

"I'll see you this afternoon" I told my mother. "It's like you said, I have to go to work now".

She nodded. "Have a nice day, Lucas".

I got in my car and drove to Cadillac Jack's. The whole time, I was bracing myself for the fallout that would no doubt come as soon as my supervisor saw that the news was true. I really was a Lucario.

When I arrived, it was just in the nick of time. Another minute and I'd have been late. I was generally one who liked to be punctual, and never wanted to arrive anywhere tardy.

Entering the store, I got quite a few unwelcome glances. Clearly, they were shocked to see me there, and didn't want to be associated with the teenager who had managed to turn into a Lucario. They probably figured I was some freak of nature.

My supervisor was standing in the kitchen, beckoning me over with a wave of his hand. I went over to where he was, and he looked directly at me with a stern expression.

"It's true?" he asked, sounding slightly bewildered, not at all in the manner that his terse facial expression would seem to suggest. "You really have turned into a Lucario?"

I nodded. "I've been like this since the afternoon before yesterday. Turns out I passed out because I was really hungry from my metabolism adjusting to that of a Lucario".

My supervisor nodded. "Well, in that case, leave".

My stomach dropped like a freight elevator whose cables had been cut. "Leave?"

"Leave and don't come back. We can't have you working here, it gives us too much attention that we really don't need. This is how it is and this is how it goes".

My mouth started tasting rather metallic. In spite of that, I was able to think of a quick joke. Sometimes humor can help with situations, but I was definitely a little foolish to use it in this instance.

"You sure you want me to leave? I'll be good for business if I stay. How many people would love to eat at a restaurant that the human-turned-Lucario works at?"

I wanted my supervisor to laugh, but he didn't. Instead, he looked almost as though he were going to have an aneurysm, he was so mad.

"Just go!" he shouted. "Go and stay gone! If you remain, you'll be arrested and charged for trespassing".

That was all I needed to hear. I was only 18 years old, after all, and I really didn't need a criminal record at this age. I left the diner and drove home.

* * *

On the way back, I started to take inventory of my situation. Spoiler alert: It was pretty grim right now.

_I've turned into a Lucario. My potential girlfriend might also be turning into a Lucario pretty soon. I got fired from my internship and banned from Cadillac Jack's. Okay, maybe that's a plus._

I chuckled at that last line. It gave me a certain shrewd satisfaction to know that I'd never be going back to that place, a place of such bad memories.

By this time my mother and father had both left for work. They usually only worked from home on Wednesdays, but I suppose they'd each used one of their sick days to stay home and make sure I was doing all right in my new Lucario form. Now that I was a little more adjusted to being a Pokemon, they figured that I could do well enough on my own for now.

As such, I didn't see any reason to call them to let them know I'd been sacked. The moment of reckoning would come later today, and it wasn't a moment I was looking forward to. I just wanted this all to be over.

I sat down on the couch and reclined my long, lanky Lucario body. I didn't grab the remote to turn on the TV, though; the news was too depressing for a moment like this, and I didn't particularly want to see myself there. Nor was I eager to hear the reporters' spin on why I had gotten fired.

Eventually, I must have fallen asleep. I don't know how long I slept for, but the next thing I knew, the phone was ringing. According to the female robotic voice coming from the phone, the call was from Angelina Hawley.

Maybe she wants to hang out with me again!, I thought excitedly, instantly wide awake again. I made my way to the phone as quickly as I safely could, and then picked it up.

"Hello, Angelina" I said, in a voice that was neither seductive nor cold. I don't know why, but it just seemed to come out perfectly, in exactly the tone I wanted it to.

"Hey, Lucas. There's...something I want to show you. Could you come over here to my place for a bit?"

I didn't even hesitate. My parents wouldn't be home from work for some hours still, and they'd never have to know that I was at Angelina's house instead of at Cadillac Jack's. "Of course" I replied, trying to sound nonchalant. However, I was terrified inside.

If this is what I think it is…

I gulped, nervous for what I was going to find, whatever Angelina wanted to show me. Nonetheless, I got in my car and backed out of the driveway.

Angelina only lived about five minutes away from me, so it wasn't long before I was parking right in front of her home. It was somewhat smaller than mine, but not by very much. After shutting off the car's engine, I walked up to her door and rang the doorbell.

It was her mother who came to the door. "Hey, Lucas. How are you doing?" she asked me.

"I'm doing pretty well, all things considered" I replied. "I mean, it's not every day that you turn into a Lucario, but I hope that I'm managing it as well as I can".

Mrs. Hawley nodded. "Well, you can come in and see Angelina. She seems to be rather upset; I guess she thought that you could cheer her up".

Almost immediately, the chance of me having been right went up, in my mind, from about 85% to 99%. If I had been terrified before, I was just about ready to faint. I steeled myself, no pun intended, for what I would find.

In the Hawley family's living room, Angelina was curled up in a red and gold armchair. Except that it wasn't Angelina.

It was a Lucario with mint green fur.

"Angelina?" I asked.

"Lucas…" she said, and judging by the sound of her voice she must have been crying just recently. Based on her new physical appearance, she would have been entirely justified in doing so.

"You've turned into a Lucario, haven't you?" That was of course an unnecessary thing to ask, so I don't know why I said it. Probably more to convince myself that this was real life. Me and Angelina had both transformed into Pokemon.

She nodded, sobbing. "It was...so painful. Felt like a spike was coming out of my chest".

"Well, I suppose that's true. Look at that, you've got a nice new chest spike! Look on the bright side, Angelina".

She shrugged while continuing to sob. "I really don't see any bright side, Lucas. I should have known what was going to happen".

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"I mean that when you scratched me, I just had a feeling that your state was contagious. You could infect anyone with this disease of turning into a Lucario, just by scratching them with the spike on the back of your paw".

My heart stopped as I realized that she was right. This breathtaking realization meant that I wasn't safe to be around anyone. I was a rather clumsy person, now Lucario, always liable to accidentally brush someone with the back of my hand. Except that now it would have disastrous consequences.

"We'll find a cure, though. I promise". I grabbed her paw and held it in mine. She didn't protest, even though we were far too old for that unless we were dating, and we weren't officially dating.

"And what if we don't?" I could tell that Angelina was a hard time keeping it together; she must have been holding back the floodgates of tears.

"If we don't, then I suppose we'll be Lucario forever".

Almost as soon as I said that, I realized that being a Lucario permanently might not be such a bad thing. Yeah, the fur was quite hot, and I didn't like the attention that being a Pokemon brought me, but if it made me rich and famous, something I'd often dreamed of when I was younger, than that was a win.

Plus, I could learn how to use aura, and that would really help me defend myself against any number of enemies that might have been going after me. I envisioned myself launching an Aura Sphere against a large crowd of attackers; that would be very satisfying indeed.

Right now, though, I could see why Angelina was so distraught at the prospect of never becoming human again. Perhaps part of it was because she'd had less time to get used to it than me.

"I started feeling really hungry just minutes after you scratched me with your paw" she told me. "That's why I wolfed down my food so fast. And I'm also sorry that I had your apple pie".

"Don't worry" I replied. "I'm over it now".

"I'd never known myself to eat so much in one sitting, and I was wondering what the hell was wrong with me. And now I know".

I nodded. "We're going to find a way to get through this, I promise. Have you left the house since you transformed?"

Angelina shook her head. "Too scared to. I don't want the news media to get ahold of me".

"That's definitely a good idea. You can always decline to be interviewed, too, I heard; I wonder why I didn't do that yesterday".

Just then, Angelina's mother came back into the room. "I made some sandwiches for the two of you, along with chips and lemonade. Come sit outside, it's really nice weather".

"Uh, Mom?" Angelina asked. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea".

"Oh, don't worry about it" Mrs. Hawley replied. "They're not going to find us in our back yard".

_Uh...they found me in my bedroom_, I thought. I didn't say it out loud, though.

"Really, Mom, I don't think we should eat outdoors today. I don't want any more attention on me than is absolutely necessary, plus I'd bake alive underneath all this fur".

"Well, there are hot summers here, so you'll have to get used to it" Mrs. Hawley replied, something that I thought was rather rude of her to say. She couldn't possibly have fully understood what her daughter was going through, because, if she had, she wouldn't have said something like that.

The sandwiches were peanut butter and jelly, one of my favorites. As we sat outside on the back porch, I could almost relax a little. There's something about sitting or lying down on your porch and being warmed by the sun that is just so soothing.

"Do you think we'll have to run away?" Angelina asked. Although she didn't specify a person, it seemed highly likely to be directed at me.

"No, why would you?" her mother replied. "It's not like you'd be any safer anywhere else. Besides, your life is here, with us. You've still got another year left of high school".

It was then that I realized that senior year of high school, which I still had to go through, would be an absolute nightmare. It was one thing to do it normally, having to apply for college while also completing the difficult coursework, but doing it as a Lucario, with the news of my transformation having had over a month to sink in...talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire!

"Sometimes safety is more important than schoolwork" I told Mrs. Hawley. Turning to Angelina, I said, "I really don't know what we're going to do. But, like I said, I'm confident that it will all work out".

At this point, I was really only saying that to convince myself that we'd be fine. I really didn't see this story having a happy ending.

As I was on my second sandwich, I felt my cell phone vibrate, indicating that I had received a call. I opened my phone to find that the call was from my mother.

"Yes?" I asked her. "I'm with Angelina right now, having lunch". I'd forgotten that I wasn't supposed to tell my mother that, but oh well. I supposed it wasn't too big a deal.

"I got a call from Dr. Andrew Dexter. He works at the Greater Pastoria Laboratory, and he wants to talk to you".

"Where is he?"

"He's currently at our home, waiting for you to arrive. He wants to take you to his lab".

Wow, does that sound sketchy or what?

"All right. I'll be right there" I replied, before hanging up.

"Who was it?" Angelina asked me.

"My mother. I have to go now; there's someone who wants to see me". Although I spoke quickly, as I tend to do, I was weighing every word carefully. I knew that one misstep might make Angelina feel suspicious of something.

"I hope it's not a news anchor or someone like that".

"Trust me, it's not" I replied. "But like I said, I really must be going now. I'll see you later, okay? As often as you want me to, I'll come over".

After bidding Angelina good-bye, I got back in my car and drove home. When I got there, I saw that an old-fashioned maroon car was parked in my driveway, so I parked in front of my house.

I went inside through the back door, where I found a man I hadn't seen before.

He was a man probably a few years older than my father, so in his mid-to-late fifties. He had white hair and a short beard, and, if I didn't know he was a scientist, I would have assumed he coached minor league soccer at the local elementary school field.

"You are Dr. Andrew Dexter?" I asked him.

He nodded. "And you are Sir Lucas Enfield?"

I chuckled. "If you'd like to give me the 'Sir' title, go right ahead. I like being flattered".

"Okay then. We should probably head over to my lab now. It's a ways away, it'll take us a while to get there".

"I have a question". Even though I said that, I was barely conscious of doing so, and yet I knew exactly what I wanted to say.

"Yes?"

"Why do you want me to go to your lab? Is there any particular reason?"

Dr. Dexter smiled. "It's because, Lucas, I have an offer you can't refuse".


	8. Dexter's Laboratory

**This chapter is dedicated to my parents, as today is their anniversary. Also, we've hit 1,000 views on Snowbound!**

* * *

Dr. Dexter led me outside to his car. It was one of those old-fashioned types, the kind of car where you have to put the keys into the ignition in order for it to start. As soon as he did so, the engine roared to life.

"I've heard that the last few days have been rather difficult for you" the scientist told me as he began backing out of my driveway.

I snorted. "You could say that again. Honestly, Dr. Dexter, that's quite the understatement".

"Call me Andrew, please" Dr. Dexter told me. "It's really no big deal. I'm perfectly fine going by my first name".

"Okay, Andrew".

He drove through the downtown area of Gardenia, which, as downtown areas went, was pretty small. It was a small line of retailers next to a train station, the tracks leading towards downtown Pastoria City.

"Where is your laboratory?" I asked Andrew. "Is it downtown, or in the suburbs?"

"It's in the suburbs, but still a ways away from here. It took me about half an hour to get you, but in the intervening time since I got to your house, traffic has probably picked up. My guess is maybe forty-five minutes".

I nodded, hoping that I didn't start feeling restless. That was of course going to be a difficult task, because I seemed to have so much more energy as a Lucario than I did as a human. I then thought of something even more worrisome.

If we were driving through the downtown area at all, I'd get seen by even more people. Hell, some might think that Andrew was kidnapping me and taking me to a poacher. I didn't want to create all that panic for nothing.

Normally, I liked downtown Pastoria City. There were a lot of cool things to do there. However, today, I knew what I had to request to the scientist.

"Can we not drive through downtown?" I asked him. "There are going to be a lot of people who see me".

Andrew nodded. "We can do that, but it'll take even longer to get to my lab then. Are you okay with that?"

"More than okay if it means not getting noticed by too many people".

"Okay then".

For much of the rest of the ride, we didn't talk too much. My mind was stuck on something Andrew had said to me when we were back at my house, something that had made the fur on the back of my neck tingle slightly.

_I have an offer you can't refuse._

Something about that sentence seemed rather sinister. It made me think that there was an evil, ulterior motive for Andrew to take me to his laboratory.

_Maybe it's a poacher ring._

Well, if that was the case, there was no getting out of this situation now. I might have opened the car door and tried to get out as said car was moving, but that would have been very stupid of me. Assuming I didn't break both legs in the attempt to get out, where would I run? And how would I avoid being seen?

I wasn't sure about the answer to the former question, but as to the latter, I knew that there was just no way.

As the minutes passed, and we got closer and closer to the lab, my sense of consternation only increased exponentially. Sooner or later, I would find out if this guy was legit or not. And if he wasn't, this could very well be the last day of my life.

After roughly an hour and fifteen minutes of driving, we were in a forested area in the exurbs of Pastoria City. Pine and spruce trees dotted the hilly landscape. A river ran through part of the forest.

_This place really is quite beautiful, _I thought. _I suppose we're kind of out in the country now._

Eventually, the ground leveled out, and I saw an enormous building in front of us. And, when I say _enormous, _I'm not messing around. This place could have fit three hundred copies of my house, if they were stacked roughly ten long, ten wide, and three high. There was no doubt in my mind that we'd reached it now.

This was Dexter's laboratory.

After Andrew turned the car off, I opened the door and got out, stretching my arms and legs in order to try and get some feeling back. My back often goes numb when I've been sitting in a car for a long time, but, then again, so do most peoples' backs.

"We're here" he said, unnecessarily.

Even if I wasn't the best science student in school, I still found science impressive, especially the field of modern medicine. Modern medicine had saved so many peoples' lives, and I found that rather amazing. Our situation as a human race, as well as our relationship with Pokemon, had really grown and developed as a result of science.

In that light, I should have found the building a place of wonder, but I didn't. It looked more like an imposing castle at which some evil king lived, from which he ruled over his kingdom with an iron fist.

My palms started sweating. _If this is the place where I'm meant to die, well, it was nice knowing you, world._

Andrew led me over to the front door, and I noticed the switch on the right, which had a single red button, much like the buttons used to open doors for people in wheelchairs. The scientist pressed that button, and then there was a gruff voice on the other end of some intercom.

"What's the password?" the gruff voice asked.

"Infantroopen" Andrew responded, without hesitation.

It was such a silly word that I had to laugh, even if for only a moment. Whatever the case, it was clear that Andrew had opened this door using the password many times, judging by how quickly he'd said that word. But the door swung open, so it worked, I suppose.

We headed into the lab, and, behind the desk, there was a rather plump woman who appeared to be on the older side of middle age. She was wearing a blue blouse and had a shock of frizzy red hair. She looked up as she saw us, nodding.

"Dr. Dexter, is this Lucas Enfield? The young man who has turned into a Lucario?"

Andrew nodded. "I was just going to show him around my laboratory, and then give him an offer that I think he can't refuse".

The woman behind the desk nodded, as though she knew what this offer was. Which, come to think of it, she most likely did.

"Well, I'll just print out your badge, Lucas. You need an identification badge in order to progress any further inside this facility, so you'll need to wait just one minute".

She typed some things onto her computer and clicked a couple of times. Within seconds after the last click, a small white badge was printed out with my name and photo on it. It was a photo of my Lucario form, not my human one.

"You don't even need to take a picture of me?" I asked her. "Wow, the technology here is just like magic". Then again, you know what they say about any sufficiently advanced technology.

"Indeed" she replied, nodding. "In any case, I'll let you take Lucas on the tour, and then you can come back here".

We went through the nearest doors and entered a room that was roughly the shape of a perfect octagon, with every side the same length and every angle the same degree. Much of it was made up of glass cases, and, intersecting each other in the shape of a cross, there were two hallways with benches to sit on. In other words, it looked rather like an exhibit at a museum.

In each of the four massive glass cases, there was a large tank of water with a bunch of smaller tubes running through it, roughly the size of intravenous lines you'd find in a hospital room. They were connected to Lucario, which were floating yet submerged in the tanks.

"What is _that?" _I asked Andrew. "That looks rather inhumane, does it not?"

"Trust me, Lucas, all of the experiments that we run are perfectly humane. No humans or Pokemon are being harmed in the process".

The eyes of all four Lucario were closed, and their aura sensing organs hung limp behind their heads. For all intents and purposes, they appeared to be dead.

"They're not dead, you know" Andrew told me. "They're all in states of stasis as we study their brain waves and heart rate. They should be completely unconscious, but sometimes Lucario can sense things even when asleep. We're trying to see if they can sense things even when they're placed in a 100% comatose state".

"But wouldn't they just end up drowning?" I asked him indignantly. I didn't care about decorum at all. From my point of view, all four Lucario appeared to be dead.

"That's where the sedative comes in" said Andrew. "It's so that they won't panic and screw up the oxygen system that is keeping them alive. The reason they're in the water is because it's not actually water, it's a fluid called Wyomium. It stimulates their muscles, so that they won't atrophy while they're unconscious for a period of two weeks".

"That's interesting" I thought. I tried envisioning being told that, after being put under, I was going to be held in a tank unconscious for two weeks as a bunch of scientists studied me. "Are the tests painful?"

"No, they're not. If you've ever gotten an EKG or anything like that, you'd know that it doesn't hurt at all. The only reason they're sedated is because two weeks is a long time to be just there doing nothing, and also, like I said, so that they don't panic".

I nodded. I was only one room into this laboratory, and I was already quite amazed at what I was seeing.

"Dr. Dexter? Andrew?" I asked the scientist.

He turned to me. "Yes? What is it, young man?"

"You're not going to experiment on me, are you? At least, not without my consent?"

Andrew put his hand on my shoulder, much like a father would do to comfort a child. "No, Lucas. The Lucario who are participating in this study all gave their written and verbal consent prior to the experiment, and they're each getting paid five hundred thousand dollars, annually, for the rest of their lives".

"That's quite the incentive" I replied.

"Sometimes subjects would be willing to _pay _half a million to do this, especially if they're very rich already. Who doesn't want to help advance scientific causes? But no, the law says we have to pay them and not the other way around".

There was something in the way Andrew way too casually talked about this experiment that made me feel uneasy. There was no light in his bright blue eyes.

"In any case, let me show you some more rooms here in the lab".

Andrew led me into a short corridor, and there were two doors that we passed along the way to the next room. I was wondering what might possibly be behind either of them, but, fortunately, I was able to resist my curiosity to open them. I strongly suspected that if I had done that, Andrew would not be happy with me.

Eventually, we reached the next room, and I saw another curious sight. It didn't quite grab one's attention the way the comatose Lucario had, but it was still quite interesting.

A bunch of what appeared to be medicine bottles were in another glass case. Inside of them, rather than pills, there was a liquid that was a medium violet red color. "What's that?" I asked Andrew.

"Those would be samples of the antidote we're working on. Our goal at the laboratory, after all, is to save as many lives as possible through the different technologies we develop".

"Antidotes for what, exactly?"

Andrew scratched his beard with his fingers. "There's a particularly powerful poison used by some poachers...they call it Zexonyte. If you're envenomated with it, it takes as little as thirty minutes to kill you...very painfully. There's no known antidote, except for the one we're working on developing".

I was afraid to ask this next question, but I did so anyway. "How does the poison kill its victims".

"It effectively cuts off your ability to breathe, while basically liquifying the victim's organs. It's almost like drowning on dry land".

I shuddered. There were lots of things I hoped never to experience, and drowning on dry land was most certainly one of them. "How many poachers use it?"

"Not many, fortunately" Andrew replied. "It's a Class I illegal substance worldwide, as mandated by the United Regions. Just the possession of as little as one tiny vial is enough to warrant a life sentence in a maximum-security prison. Not even using it, just the possession of it. As such, most poachers don't want to take that risk; they simply use less deadly poisons".

"Wouldn't they want their victims to remain alive, though?" I asked Andrew. "After all, if you're a brutal poacher, don't you want the victim to feel as much pain as possible? Also, would the poison remain in the fur?"

The scientist shrugged. "I wouldn't necessarily think that way, but then again, I'm not a brutal poacher. And no, the poison only kills one being. In any case, the antidote is still under development, so it's really better to avoid getting hit with it at all".

I brought up the thought I'd had. "Should I learn how to fight, then? I feel kind of naked without any aura sensing abilities".

Andrew shook his head. "You might think that way, but being able to defend yourself is no substitute for being able to avoid poachers. In fact, that's related to the offer that I'm going to give you later".

With what he'd told me about the poison that made it feel like you were drowning on dry land, I'd almost forgotten about the offer he had alluded to. But I hadn't been able to completely get it out of my mind, and so I knew I'd have to reckon with the decision eventually.

After another moment of silence, he led me into the next room, which resembled something like a home gym. In one corner, there were several weights and a bench, while, in the other corner, a Lucario was running on a treadmill. I could tell this one was female.

"Maisie?" asked Andrew. I guessed that was the Lucario's name.

Maisie the Lucario took out her air pods and turned to face us. "I was just in the middle of listening to 'Believe Her', but I'll talk to you guys instead. You're also interrupting my workout, so there's that".

"I'd like you", Andrew said, directing it at the female Lucario, "to meet Lucas, the white-furred Lucario. He's here with me, going on a tour of the facility".

Maisie held out her paw for me to shake. I held it out and shook it a few times, the way my mother had always taught me to whenever I met someone new.

"Why do you have white fur?" Maisie asked me.

I felt my face flush slightly, but I was able to answer without fainting from embarrassment. "I wasn't originally a Lucario. You might have heard on the news about Lucas Enfield, the 18-year-old who turned into a Lucario?"

Maisie nodded. "Indeed I did".

"Well, that's me. I'm Lucas Enfield".

"Figures" she replied, shaking my paw once more. "Well, I'm Maisie. And I'm just here doing a stress test on the treadmill; I suppose I'm another one of the subjects here. Fortunately I'm not one of the people being sedated and going in the tanks, I don't have the guts to do that".

I chuckled. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Maisie".

"Nice to meet you too, Lucas" she replied.

After that, Andrew and I left the room and headed down the hallway to what appeared to be a conference room. It held a long, oval-shaped table with eight swivel chairs around it, three on each side and one on each end. There were a couple shelves on each side of the room, as well as a desk with a computer at it.

"Sit down, please" Andrew told me. "At any chair you prefer".

I selected the chair closest to the door from which I had just entered. If this turned out to be a trap, at least I'd have an easier time escaping than I might have had otherwise.

Andrew took the seat on the other end of the table. "So, Lucas, you probably wondered why I invited you to tour my laboratory today. I can assure you that this wasn't a trap at all, but rather, like I said, an offer you couldn't refuse".

_Maybe it is an offer that I can't refuse, but why should that mean that it isn't a trap?_

"That's why", I replied. "So that you'd give me the offer. Well, tell me what the offer is, and then I'll decide".

"You don't have to decide right now. In fact, you should probably take a few hours, maybe even days, to think about it. Just decide eventually so I know if and when I should get the helicopter ready for you".

"Wait" I said. "What does the helicopter have to do with this?"

"That's what I was about to get to" Andrew replied, smiling. It didn't appear to be a sinister smile, but I was still having a hard time trusting this man.

"Please explain".

"I have a friend named Thomas Kemp. He's a very wealthy man, and a very good person as well. A philanthropist, if you will. In fact, he donated most of the money to help set this place up".

_Sounds like a good guy, except for keeping Lucario in glass tanks. _No matter if they were sedated to the point of being in induced comas, I still didn't think it was humane, but I wasn't going to push Andrew any further.

"Like I said, great guy. He lives in a mansion about fifty miles north of Hearthome City, which is surrounded by the Coronet Range and numerous forests. It's a beautiful place, and I think you'd like it there".

I could practically picture the place in my head, even though I'd never seen it. It sure sounded beautiful to me!

"I think I know where this is going" I replied sheepishly. Even if the place surrounding the mansion sounded gorgeous, I'm not going to pretend that I wasn't a little bit uneasy about the whole prospect.

Andrew nodded. "It's probably no secret to you by now, but you, my friend, have a target on your back. There are so many poachers who want to get to you, it's not even funny. But the mansion has great security; you'd be safe there".

"Are you sure about that?" I asked him. "I'm not going to compromise my freedom, let alone my life in Gardenia, for safety".

The scientist raised an eyebrow at me. "Even if it means getting hit with that poison? The one that feels like you're drowning on dry land?"

My heart almost stopped at that question. That was definitely a terrifying idea, to be sure, but I wasn't ready to accept his offer just yet.

"Uh...I'll have to think about it".

"I told you this earlier", Andrew replied, "but you don't have to decide right now. I'd _prefer _you told me sooner rather than later, because I really don't want you to get caught by a poacher, but it's your call".

"How long do I have to make my decision?" I asked.

"As long as you need, as long as you are still alive". Andrew smiled at the last few words, but if that was a joke, I didn't think it was particularly funny.

Before I could object to his "joke", he continued.

"If you want to accept my offer of protection, just say the word and come over here. The chopper will be ready to take you to the mansion".

"Why a chopper? Why can't I travel by plane or train?"

"My friend", Andrew responded, "I think you already know why".

Almost immediately, I realized just how bone-headed I had been to imply that there was any other option. The fact was, I'd attract way too much attention on any form of public transportation. I knew a thing or two about the geography of the Sinnoh region, having taken numerous classes on it in school, and I knew that Hearthome City, or rather the area fifty miles north of it, was _much _too far to walk.

But at the same time, I was filled with wonder. I'd never been in a helicopter before, but I could imagine that it would be quite incredible to see the woodlands of Sinnoh from relatively low in the sky, or at least lower than an airplane.

I nodded sheepishly. "You're right. I know why".

"So yeah. If you want to accept my offer, then come here with thirty minutes' notice. The pilot of Thomas Kemp's helicopter can take you and one other person with you, and you can choose who that person is, or if you even want someone else with you at all. I hope you aren't afraid of heights?"

"Not terribly" I said. "I don't think I'd be scared in a helicopter, at any rate".

Andrew nodded. "The choice is yours. But choose carefully, Lucas, because poachers don't take a summer holiday. They'll keep on hunting you until your head is hanging over their fireplace".

* * *

**I was originally going to include a scene at the end of this chapter in which Dr. Dexter takes Lucas out for ice cream in order to try and "butter him up" to get him to accept his offer. In the end, I decided that it would be kind of anticlimactic, and, more importantly, not too important to the plot. **


	9. Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

**I have a Tumblr blog for this story now! You can find it under the name "snowbound-fanfiction". That should be me. **

**This is, narrowly, the longest chapter of the story up to this point. We've also passed 30,000 words, which I think is pretty cool.**

**I'm also very proud of the last few paragraphs of this chapter. I think it's really clever. You'll see why when you reach it.**

* * *

Well, _that _was a comforting thought.

If you couldn't tell there, I was being sarcastic. I didn't particularly like the idea of being a stuffed Lucario head hanging over the mantle of some rich poacher's fireplace. As a result, I resolved that I was going to learn how to fight and defend myself against anyone who would pose a threat to myself or Angelina.

_Why am I feeling like I have to protect Angelina too? Oh well, not like that's super important right now._

As Andrew drove me back to my house, neither of us said a word to the other for the longest time. It was a rather awkward silence, but it was a silence that I needed, because, when people aren't talking around me, I feel like I can see things a little more clearly.

_If I take the protection, do I benefit from it?_

The obvious answer would obviously be yes, of course I would benefit from being protected. I was being hunted by poachers, and they were actively looking for me, not just passively. At the same time, I didn't know how much of the freedom I currently enjoyed I would have to give up were I to accept Dr. Dexter's offer.

_I'll have to take some time to think about it. But, until they catch me, I've got all the time in the world to think about it._

"Do you want me to turn on the radio?" Andrew asked me.

It was completely out of the blue. I hadn't asked for music, nor did I see any indication that Andrew liked music. I nodded, though, and Andrew turned one of the dials.

_"When I'm in Detroit, I run r-"._

"Sorry, wrong station".

I laughed. I strongly suspected, however, that it would be the last time I laughed that day. The decision that was coming up would no doubt be one of the most important ones I'd ever be making in my life.

Eventually, we did reach my house, and I bade Andrew farewell. After that, I let myself in using the key that was taped to the grill on the back porch.

My parents still weren't home from work, so I decided to make myself a bowl of ice cream and sit in front of the TV. Turning on the television, I switched to the news channel, where they were covering my story more.

"We are now on Day 3 of this story, but Lucas Enfield remains a Lucario. He was spotted entering the home of Angelina Hawley at roughly 11:55 AM today; we don't know exactly why he was there, but, given that the two appear to be dating, it is likely that it was for a reason related to that".

_Please stop interpreting things that are none of your business!, _I thought angrily.

"In any case," said the news anchor, "we were unable to reach the young man for comment. That is all there is for today".

I sighed with a slight amount of relief. While I wasn't out of the woods yet, not by any sense of the imagination, at least they hadn't picked up on Angelina's transformation as of right now. They were going to find out sooner or later, though, so the relief was going to be short-lived. Still, it was going to be nice while it lasted.

Eventually, my parents did come home from work. They'd brought flatbreads home from the grocery store, so we would be having homemade miniature pizzas for dinner. Even though I usually enjoyed this dish, I knew that it was going to be awkward between us once I told them about the offer Andrew had made me. As such, I wasn't looking forward to dinner that much.

We sat down to dinner, and the first thing my mother asked me, I kid you not, was, "How was the tour of the laboratory?"

That question caught me completely off my guard. I replied with, "It was..._interesting, _to say the least".

"How so?" my father responded. It was then that I realized there was absolutely no way I was getting out of explaining my dilemma to my parents. Then again, it wasn't like I'd thought there was to begin with. I had to face this head on.

"Dr. Dexter gave me a choice" I explained. "And it's a hard one, one I might need your help with".

My mother put down her flatbread pizza. "Lucas, you're eighteen now. You can make decisions on your own. You don't need us".

That line almost made me want to cry, but I was fortunately able to keep my composure as I continued on.

"Well, Dr. Dexter said that I could go with him to the manor of Thomas Kemp, his friend. He says I'd be safe there, away from the prying eyes that desperately want to capture me".

"Oh" my mother replied, and I could see the realization dawning in her eyes that she was indeed involved in this decision.

"I'd have to leave you guys" I said. "It's a hard decision, for sure".

"We couldn't come with you?" my father asked me.

I shook my head. "I wouldn't want to put you in danger. Hell, you're probably already in danger thanks to being associated with me".

It was then that I realized something else. This wasn't just about my own safety, but that of my parents as well. It was one thing to risk my own life by staying here, it was quite another to risk my parents' lives. No matter what, I didn't have the right to do that.

_Maybe I should leave, _I thought. _It's probably better for them that way._

But then I looked back at my parents, and I could tell that my mother had tears in her eyes. The thought of me leaving her, possibly never to see her again, had to have been killing her inside. It made the idea of leaving and taking Andrew's protection very hard.

And yet...

"That's true" my mother said. "I don't see any way we could go with you. Then again, you're legally an adult now. You can make your own decisions, and you can definitely live with Thomas Kemp. You did say that was his name, right?"

I nodded. "I'll have to think more about it. I don't want to make my decision based on fear; I want to think rationally about this. Or rather, as rationally as possible when all things are considered".

After dinner, my parents tried to talk to me, but I locked myself in my room instead. Technically the door wasn't locked; it _had _no lock. However, I sat with my back firmly against the door so that it could not be opened from outside my room.

The reason? I needed some time to be alone, some time to make up my mind. Whether I decided to go or to stay, my life would most certainly never be the same again.

At one point, my mother knocked on my door, but I dug my heels harder into the floor and pushed back so as to make it utterly impassable. She wasn't going to open the door, no matter how hard she tried.

"Lucas? Let me in, please".

I probably sounded like about five years old when I replied, "I don't want to".

"Come on, Lucas. If you want to handle this situation like a mature adult, then let me into your room".

I don't know why, but I caved, standing up and stepping away from the door. She then opened it and sat down next to me on the beanbag chair.

"What's wrong?" she asked me, and that made me feel even sadder. It wasn't enough that I felt like I'd lost some of my dignity. It was just so difficult to envision myself leaving home, even if it was what had to happen.

"I don't know. I just don't know if I'm ready to give up my home just yet". I could feel my tears crash against the mental dam I'd built up, trying to release themselves. But I wasn't going to let myself cry.

"You'll always have a home with us, Lucas, even if you decide to leave. I'll understand either way, no matter what decision you make".

"I'll wait for the morning" I said. "Talk to Angelina about it".

"Why with Angelina?" my mother asked me. "This is only about you, isn't it?"

_So she doesn't know? I guess she doesn't know._

I shook my head. "Mom, Angelina's a Lucario now too".

Her eyes opened to be the size of dollar coins, but I was sure she could tell I wasn't lying. "Wow. I wasn't expecting that. How do you think it happened?"

I was going to tell my mother that I thought it was because of the scratch I'd given her on accident. Then I remembered that that wouldn't explain how I'd become a Lucario in the first place, other than that weird locket I'd found underneath my pillow.

_But that can't be right!_

When I'd found the locket in my bed, I had already been experiencing the symptoms of becoming a Lucario. It just didn't make too much sense to me, but, then again, nothing seemed to anymore.

"I honestly don't know, Mom. I honestly don't know".

"Was Dr. Dexter's offer for both you and Angelina?" she asked me.

I nodded. "It was. Her fur is mint green, so that's another unusual color that the poachers are going to be after. She'd have to go with me, she's in just as much danger as I am now".

I could tell, based on my mother's expression, that she was starting to suspect something about the nature of the relationship between myself and Angelina. However, she seemed to decide that it wasn't worth it to try and press me further, so she said something else.

"Does she know about what he offered?" she asked me.

"No. I'm going to invite her over tomorrow and ask her about it. I think the decision can wait a little longer".

My mother nodded. "Well, if you'd like to be left alone, then I'll oblige that request. I'll see you in the morning".

"Good night, Mom".

* * *

Almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, I sank into yet another nightmare. I swear to Arceus, I was getting used to this by now, but that didn't make them any less terrifying.

In my dream, I was running along the same path I'd been on in my last nightmare. The ground, however, felt cold to the touch, as though there were a light dusting of snow on it. Indeed, as I looked down and around, I saw that there was.

I kept running. I didn't know exactly why, but there was a need to get away from something behind me. I felt even more terrified than I had been in the dream in which I'd been drowning.

Eventually, I was running so fast that I could barely see anything. Had I broken the sound barrier? It seemed unlikely, given that none of the rocks seemed to have shifted, but, then again, it was only just a dream.

Being that it was a dream, you'd think that I would have been less terrified. However, it didn't have that effect on me. I was just as scared as I would have been had this been happening in real life.

I saw what looked like a cliff in front of me, and I tried to slow down. However, something, I didn't know exactly what, wouldn't let me.

I ran so fast that, as soon as I reached the cliff, I achieved liftoff.

Now, I'd never been paragliding myself, but I'd seen videos of it, and, from what I could tell, it was almost exactly like this. It was as though I were connected to a harness that was lifting me far upwards.

Looking back, I saw what I'd been so scared of; a group of what appeared to be poachers with assault rifles. Not the kind for hunting, either; the kind for killing. They were shooting at me, but I was already too high up for that.

After I let my fear ebb away, it was replaced by something far different: _Wonder. _I'd never floated above forests and rivers and mountains like this, and it was quite something. In the distance, I saw what appeared to be a castle, rising tall against a lake.

The castle was situated on an island in said lake, which appeared to be the mouth of a river that came from the mountains. A glacial river.

_Oh my God, that is gorgeous._

But then the scene shifted, and I was looking down at a great hall of a castle. I reasoned that it was probably the same castle I'd been seeing earlier in the dream. It was quite a majestic one, if I do say so myself, and the majesticity of it extended to the great hall.

The great hall was made up of large, light orange tiles, and it was easily the size of four church sanctuaries. It was gigantic, and there was a stage at one end of it, which appeared to be for when a band would come and perform music there.

I remembered hearing legends about this place. I'd even seen a movie about it once, but that was nothing compared to actually seeing it in person.

This was Cameran Palace, the ancient home of Sir Aaron from back in the day.

Sir Aaron had been one of the few human beings to be able to harness the power of aura. As such, he was usually considered to be a legend, and every second grader knew about him, let alone every twelfth grader.

I was sitting down in midair, feeling lighter than said air. From this vantage point, I could see just about everything in the great hall.

Eventually, a woman walked in. She was tall and skinny, adorned in a long pink dress. She had long blonde hair and cold blue eyes.

_That's Queen Ilene!, _I thought excitedly. I thought of making myself known to her, but then I remembered that I doubted I could do so. After all, it was just a dream.

Queen Ilene was looking up at a painting on the wall of the great hall. When I looked in the same direction, I saw one of the most famous paintings in the world.

It was the painting of Sir Aaron with his Lucario. This ancient Lucario had given his life in order to restore the Tree of Life in the Kanto region, and he was now on the other side, getting to hang out in the afterlife with his former master.

Queen Ilene then did something I hadn't been expecting her to: She talked to the painting, because, you know, that's totally a normal thing to do.

"I've been hearing about a disturbance in the aura lately" she said in a cold voice. It wasn't necessarily rude, just _cold, _much like the way a doctor speaks when giving a patient a grim diagnosis or prognosis. "Was this caused by Lucas Enfield's transformation into a Lucario?"

Don't ask me why, but hearing my name always gets my heart pumping. Whenever I know something is about me, I get excited and nervous at the same time.

For a moment, I thought that Queen Ilene was going crazy. Just a few seconds later, however, Sir Aaron appeared in the hallway.

It wasn't Sir Aaron, of course; it was his ghost, but he had the same appearance, personality, and memories as Sir Aaron, so, for all intents and purposes, we'll say he was Sir Aaron.

"Indeed, Queen Ilene" replied Sir Aaron. His voice was a lot warmer and friendlier than the queen's, and he sounded like someone you'd have a summer picnic with down at the park. That is, were he still alive.

The ghost of Sir Aaron continued. "I'm not going to pretend that I have all the answers, but there's an evil force corrupting everything. At least, that's what I've gathered from all of this".

"Any information about this evil force?" Queen Ilene replied.

Sir Aaron's ghost shook his head. "Only that, whatever it is, it's causing the weather to go crazy in some places. They've been having blizzards in the Coronet Range at much lower elevations than they should be happening at this time of year".

I gulped. We were getting to the most important part, but, more importantly, something I'd believed had been confirmed: My transformation and the weird weather were related somehow.

"And you think that's why Lucas Enfield transformed into a Lucario?"

"We're still investigating the causes" Sir Aaron's ghost replied. "But, let me tell you one thing, we _cannot _allow Lucas to fall into the hands of a poacher. That would be one hundred percent catastrophic".

* * *

I sat bolt upright in bed, trying to catch my breath. That had been quite the dream.

There were a few things from that dream that I knew I would remember for a very long time. The first of these was flying above the mountains in northern Kanto; that was quite something, let me tell you.

The other one was, of course, the newfound knowledge that I was correct. Some force was corrupting the world, and it had caused me to turn into a Lucario.

_We _cannot _allow Lucas to fall into the hands of a poacher. That would be one hundred percent catastrophic._

In hindsight, this was probably the tipping point for me. If it wasn't the single catalyst for my decision, it was definitely a major factor.

If Sir Aaron and Queen Ilene thought it was extremely important that I remain out of harm's way, then maybe it did make sense to take Andrew's protection.

It still wouldn't be an easy decision, for sure. I'd have to leave my parents to do so, and there was no guarantee even then that I'd be 100% safe. But the idea of going to stay at Thomas Kemp's mansion seemed more and more plausible the more I thought about it.

By this point, I had all but decided to leave, but I knew that I couldn't make that decision on my own. Angelina also held a lot of stake in this, so I couldn't just not tell her.

After eating breakfast that morning, which tasted like sandpaper due to the knowledge that it was probably going to be the last breakfast I ever ate with my parents, at least for a while, I went to my phone and dialled Angelina Hawley's number.

She picked up almost immediately. "Yes, Lucas? You want me to come over?"

"Yeah" I replied. "If that's okay with you, of course".

"It's more than okay with me. I love spending time with you".

_I love spending time with you. _If it were under better circumstances, I would have found that line incredibly heartwarming when it was directed at me. As it was, however, I was very preoccupied with the information I was about to give Angelina.

"I want to tell you about yesterday, and what happened, because you hold a lot of stake in it". That was me talking.

"I'll be over there in ten minutes" Angelina replied.

It wasn't even ten minutes later that my doorbell rang, and I went to open it. Sure enough, on the other side, there was my friend, a Lucario with mint green fur.

"You owe me for this, Lucas" she told me in the type of voice that sounds playfully angry, if that is even possible.

"Oh, and why is that?" I replied, trying to sound as innocent as I could.

"It's absolutely terrifying to go out for the first time as a Lucario. I'm lucky that I didn't get spotted by any news vans, at least not that I know of. So whatever you've summoned me here for, it had better be pretty damn important".

"Oh, it is" I replied. "Trust me, it is".

I told my parents that I wanted to be alone with Angelina for this conversation, and they obliged. We ended up going to the hammock in my backyard, which could hold the two of us, but only barely. It was then that I spilled the beans.

"When I left your house yesterday, it was to meet up with a scientist named Dr. Andrew Dexter. He took me to the Greater Pastoria Laboratory and gave me a tour".

"What sorts of things were in the lab?" Angelina asked me.

I shook my head. "I don't think that's too important right now. In any case, at the end of the tour, Dr. Dexter gave me an offer, and that offer applies to you as well".

I saw Angelina's eyes open even wider than they were before, and it was then that I noticed just how red her pupils were. Even though their red eyes were a ubiquitous feature of the Lucario species, I still felt as though I were noticing it for the first time.

_Oh well. There are more important things anyway._

"What sort of offer was this?" Angelina asked me.

I saw no reason to beat around the bush. "You know how there are poachers coming after us, and we don't know how to fight yet?"

She nodded, looking scared but also hopeful, in a way. It was clear that she'd spent yesterday afternoon worried about this, and now someone was actually going to address the problem. That had to be a relief for Angelina.

"Well, Dr. Dexter said that if we so chose, he could have us taken to a mansion owned by a man named Thomas Kemp. Kemp's a philanthropist of sorts, and he gave a lot of money to help set up the Greater Pastoria Laboratory".

"Okay" Angelina replied. "What about this mansion?"

"We'd be taken there for our own protection. We'd have to leave our parents in order to accept the protection, though; being with us would only put them in danger".

"That's it. I'm going with you".

I raised my eyebrows slightly. "You are?"

"Of course. You did say that being with us puts our parents in danger, right?"

"Uh, yeah, that was not even fifteen seconds ago. In any case, I hope that your parents will be okay with you leaving".

"They will be" Angelina replied. "Believe me, they will be. I'm sure that they'll be relieved their grocery bills aren't going to triple with me around".

I laughed at that. "It's true about the hunger".

She nodded. "Just tell me a few things. How are we going to get there, for one?"

"We're going to be taken there in Dr. Dexter's helicopter. The mansion's fifty miles north of Hearthome City". I was impressed with myself for remembering that last detail.

"Oh wow. It must be absolutely gorgeous" Angelina replied.

"Indeed, it does sound like it. So you're going to come?" I was excited, more excited than I wanted to admit. If she came with me, that meant more time I was going to get to spend with Angelina, who, I will admit, looked even better in her Lucario form.

"Of course. It would be really selfish of me not to".

"Then go home and pack. We'll be staying there indefinitely".

She nodded. "It's not like it'll be that hard to pack" she replied. "After all, I don't wear clothes anymore now that I'm a Lucario".

"Yeah, but what if you should switch back to being a human and not have any clothes on?" I asked. Almost immediately, I wished I hadn't; that probably only served to make her worry more.

Angelina shook her head. "I'm really not that worried about that. I don't think we're going to suddenly return to our human forms".

I didn't ask her how she was so confident. I had the same feeling myself.

After that, she left my house. I watched her car drive off towards her house, only about five minutes away.

The plan was that she'd meet at my house for lunch with me and my parents, and that would be our last lunch together indefinitely.

Packing wasn't difficult. Considering that, like Angelina said, Pokemon didn't have to wear clothes, there was none of that necessary. I just brought my computer and its charger, as well as my tablet, phone, and its charger. I hoped to Arceus that this mansion had Wi-Fi; otherwise, I might go insane.

Okay, replace _might _with _would. _Without Wi-Fi indefinitely, I _would _go insane.

I was perhaps 98% confident now that it was the right choice, whereas, before talking with Angelina, I'd "only" been 96% confident. No matter if I felt homesick while at the manor, I'd made the right call.

So why was it so damn difficult to make the decision at first?

I realized within seconds that it hadn't been such a hard choice after all. The dream I'd had with Sir Aaron and Queen Ilene had been the tipping point for me.

_I made my choice. And yet I made it out of fear, just like I hadn't wanted to._

I gulped. I had made my bed, and now I'd have to lie in it. I was going to hide away in Thomas Kemp's manor, just like a mouse in his hidey-hole.

_Well, let's hope this doesn't end up being a mouse _trap_._

* * *

**The part about flying over the area surrounding Cameran Palace was inspired by a real-life event for me. Some of you might not know this, but back in June, I went on vacation to Greece with my family. It was spectacular; the food, the sights, the architecture, etc. were all amazing. While there, my father and I were able to go parasailing, which was really fun. It was quite something to sit down on the back of the boat, hear the engine roar to life, and then float 200 feet in the air. Man, that was a great vacation, the best one of my life thus far.**

**I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you next time for Chapter 10. Man, it'll be a fun one to write.**


	10. Departure

**During part of writing this chapter, I listened to the main theme of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. More specifically, the helicopter part. You're going to see why I thought it was fitting, and why I recommend you listen to that song as you read this chapter. If you're on a device that allows you to, that is.**

**I really enjoyed writing this, and I hope you enjoy reading it just as much. It's on the short side for sure, and I apologize for that. This really is kind of a transition chapter.**

* * *

**LUCAS ENFIELD**

_The Last Supper._

Okay, so it wasn't a supper, it was actually lunch. Even so, that didn't serve to change much. No matter what, I was still feeling plenty of heartbreak over the fact that I'd be leaving my parents within an hour or two.

As myself, my parents, and Angelina feasted on the sausages and steak my father had grilled for us, we didn't talk too much. Really, what was there to say? I felt horrible about what I was doing.

_But it's for the best, _I told myself. _It's for the best, and, what's more, you know it's for the best. You'll only put your parents in more danger if you stay here, so put a sock in it._

The longer I spent at my house, the less I wanted to leave. Every time I looked at one of the pictures of me when I was younger, or the beautiful vase on our granite counter, I thought, _This might be the last time I ever see it._

"So, Angelina," my father said, "when did you turn into a Lucario? If you don't want to talk about it, that's all right with me".

"It was about this time yesterday" Angelina replied. "I remember feeling really hungry for a day or two prior, and then, day of, just flat-out pain. Right in my chest and legs; felt like my bones were restructuring themselves".

"Well, clearly they _were _restructuring themselves" my mother said, clearly trying to sound witty, but failing miserably at it.

"Yeah" Angelina said, right before taking another bite of sausage.

"Have you seen any more of the cameras where you live, Angelina?" That was my father speaking.

My friend nodded. "I don't know why, but none of them have asked for an interview. But really, there's not too much to ask, is there?"

"What do you mean by that?" my father replied. "Don't we all have plenty of questions?"

"Yeah, but we don't have plenty of answers. That's the problem here. Hopefully we can actually figure out some of the answers when we get to Thomas Kemp's estate".

I thought of how I hadn't noticed too many cameras over the last day or so. Clearly, the news media had gotten the message that they'd gotten as much out of me as they were likely ever to, and they were going to move on to other stories. Needless to say, I was highly relieved.

"May I please be excused?" I asked my father. It was very hard to say that, not just because I was still slightly hungry in this new form with an extremely fast metabolism. I genuinely loved my parents and couldn't stand the thought of leaving them, even if it was necessary for all of our safety.

My father nodded, but he didn't look happy about it. I could tell that he was trying not to cry as well, but I could see a few tears coming out of his eyes.

I got up from my chair and went out into my backyard. I walked over to my hammock and lay down in it, holding my left arm out to the side and allowed myself to be warmed by the sun, whose rays were filtered through a group of tree branches.

I saw a butterfly Pokemon, a Beautifly, flying through the grass in my yard, heading to some of the flowers my mother had been growing to suck on some nectar. I saw the group of pine trees on one end, standing a good ten or twelve feet tall apiece. I saw the area where the swing set had once been, since taken away due to the fact that it was rotting and no longer considered safe.

I saw my house, in all of its glory. For the last time today, and maybe the last time ever. My vision started to become blurry with the tears that were forming in my eyes.

And, as I looked up at the windows to my bedroom, I cried.

* * *

Fortunately, when I went inside, nobody mentioned the fact that I'd been crying. Clearly, they either hadn't noticed or didn't want to mention it to me. Either way, I wasn't going to complain, although I very much hoped it was the former.

My father was going to drive us to the laboratory. He knew the way, having been there on business a couple of times. He was also, as I found out, friends with Andrew Dexter.

_No wonder my mother didn't seem to think it was risky to go with him, _I thought. _She knew the guy was legit._

"So where do you know this guy from?" I asked my dad as we were driving to the lab.

"We went to the same college together" he replied. "I was three years behind him, so we were only there together for a year, but it was a great year. We were pretty good friends. Unfortunately, I haven't talked to him for some time".

"Nice" I replied. "It'll be nice for you to see him again, won't it?"

He nodded. "And we're almost there" he said.

Unlike Dr. Dexter, who had obliged to my requests to drive only on suburban roads in order to get to the lab, my father hadn't been told that. And, unfortunately, I had forgotten to tell him that we really should be avoiding the city.

I didn't see any cameras as we drove through downtown Pastoria City, but I still felt more than a little uncomfortable. I hadn't seen the news in a while, so I didn't know how much they knew about my case, but I was afraid to find out.

I looked to the back seat, and Angelina was looking just as nervous as I was. Two Lucario, one with white fur and one with mint green fur, were sure to attract a lot of attention. Fortunately, traffic was fairly heavy, so I don't think too many people noticed us in between all of the other cars.

Eventually, we left the city, and I could breathe a little more easily. We were almost to the laboratory.

"This is the place" my father said a few minutes later. Even though we'd left the city limits not ten minutes before, it already looked like we were in the country.

"All right, Dad" I said. "Just know this one thing: I love you so much, and I'm really sorry that I'm leaving. I hope you understand why".

My father nodded. "Believe me, Lucas, I do understand. We'll see each other again, though. Will you make sure of that?"

"I'll do my best" I replied. Turning to Angelina, I said, "Okay, Angelina. Let's get our bags out of the car".

After we did so, I gave my father one last big hug. I wanted to wrap him in my arms and never let go, but, unfortunately, that just wasn't going to happen.

"All right" he said eventually. "Have a nice trip north".

"We will" Angelina replied.

"Gavin! Long time, no see!" exclaimed a voice coming from nearby.

I looked in the voice's general direction and saw that Dr. Andrew Dexter was coming towards my father. Given what the latter had told me about them being good friends in college, I wasn't surprised by this.

"Yeah, Andrew. It's nice to see you again" my father replied.

_I'm hoping that they get through this quickly. Because the longer I see my father here, the harder it's going to be to get in that helicopter._

Fortunately, even though I didn't say that out loud, both men seemed to get the message. "We should probably go now" Andrew said. "It takes about three hours to fly up to the Kemp estate, and we should be starting as soon as possible".

"Okay" my father said. Turning to me, he told me, "Lucas, you'll always have a home with us. Just know that, okay?"

I determined myself that, no matter what, I would not break down in front of my father. It was only going to make him sadder about the prospect of my departure, and that wasn't something I wanted to do.

"Bye, Dad. I love you".

After we exchanged our good-byes, my father got back in his car and started driving away.

"Okay" Dr. Dexter said as soon as he was gone. "I've talked to the pilot. He'll be ready to go in twenty minutes or so. Do not enter the laboratory, you're not authorized to do so right now".

I nodded. Honestly, it wasn't like I'd wanted to give Angelina a tour around the lab. She'd probably be appalled at all the comatose Lucario in the tanks, because I'd always known her to be a major Pokemon rights activist. I was perfectly fine staying outside in the summer afternoon sun.

Angelina and I sat down by the entrance to the lab. We didn't speak to each other, because neither of us could think of anything good to say. And you know what they say: If you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all.

"Okay, the chopper is ready" Dr. Dexter said, coming out of the lab. "I'll show you the way over to the helipad. It's behind the lab".

The scientist led both of us along a path right next to the lab to a large gray helipad. It had a large red circle in the middle of it, with an enormous letter H in the middle, in the exact same color.

Outside of the helicopter, a small red one, there was a man who appeared to be in his late twenties, with brown hair and sunglasses. He looked kind of like a surfer dude, and, if I didn't know that he was a helicopter pilot, I would have assumed that he _was_ in fact a surfer dude.

_Maybe he does that on the side._

"All right" he said. "You are Lucas Enfield and Angelina Hawley?" he asked us.

Both of us nodded. "I'm Lucas" I said.

"And I'm Angelina" she said.

"Very well, then. This is an absolutely beautiful flight, and I hope that both of you enjoy it. Are both of you ready?"

We both nodded again.

"Okay then" the pilot responded. "My name is Mr. Granby, and I'm the pilot of this helicopter. I don't know if Andrew, my boss, told you this, but it's about three hours to get to the Kemp manor. We should be there at 4:34 PM, by my estimation.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's do this!"

* * *

I had never been in a helicopter before, and neither had Angelina. I was already filled with wonder at the prospect.

I thought of the dream I'd had last night, the one in which I'd floated over the treetops and towards Cameran Palace. This might not be exactly the same, but it would still be pretty cool.

After both of us put on the headsets and buckled ourselves in, Mr. Granby started the engine, and soon we were rising over the laboratory, towards the unknown.

Almost immediately, I was amazed at how the laboratory looked as small as a structure a kid might have built out of blocks. I had been in airplanes before, of course, but this was far more amazing.

Even though the sounds of the engine were quite loud, it wasn't so loud that Angelina and myself couldn't hold a conversation together. As we climbed higher and higher, we eventually reached a point where we were maybe two thousand feet above the mountains.

"This is pretty incredible, isn't it?" I asked her.

She nodded, and, for what I could have sworn was the first time since yesterday, actually smiled. "Yeah. And just think, if we hadn't turned into Lucario, this would never have happened".

Angelina was of course right, but I'm not going to lie; that did come across as a little rude, at least from my perspective. It might have been kind of cool to have a different physical appearance, and to be a Pokemon, but until I learned how to defend myself, I was going to be a sitting duck.

Also, the crying earlier hadn't been for nothing. I already missed my parents greatly, and nothing about being so high up, high above the mountains and forests and rivers, was going to change that.

It was then that I wished I'd gone to summer camp when I was younger, much like many of the other students at my middle and high schools. If I had done that, maybe I wouldn't be feeling so homesick now.

_Dude, you were going to go to college anyway next year, _I told myself. _Grow the fuck up._

I tried to take a look back at the laboratory, just one last look, but it was difficult to see much behind the helicopter. It was also just too far away already.

"I hope this was the right decision" Angelina said quietly, so quietly that I figured the pilot couldn't hear us.

"It is. It is the right decision" I replied, but it was more to convince myself, and to soothe her, than because I actually believed that.

"Why are the trees down there so bare?" I asked Mr. Granby to try and get my mind off my doubts about leaving. "They look like they're dead".

I was pointing to a cluster of trees on the side of a hill, next to a small lake. They looked black and charred.

"That's because they've been burned to a crisp. There was a forest fire there a couple weeks back, lightning struck a tree and it just started burning. Fortunately it was largely contained within that area. No human fatalities".

_I hope there weren't any Pokemon fatalities, _I thought grimly.

Even with the burned trees, I still found the sight quite beautiful. We ascended higher and kept going further along.

As we kept flying northwest towards the Hearthome City area, Mr. Granby kept pointing out various natural wonders.

"There's a Zoroark camp there, Zora Valley" the pilot said at one point, and I looked out the window of the copter.

Sure enough, I saw what looked like a small village, with virtually all of the buildings being log cabins. I saw Zoruas running around playing tag or something else; that species never seemed to run out of energy. I saw older Zoroarks lounging by the side of a river.

"That's beautiful" Angelina said, gasping at the sight. "I'd love to live there".

"Yeah" Mr. Granby responded. "It's really quite spectacular. They live fairly simple lives there, but they take care of each other. If you ask me, that's one of the best ways to live there is".

We passed a group of limestone cliffs, as well as some hot springs up in the mountains.

"There's quite a bit of snow in the Coronet Range right now, but we're not going over too much of it on today's flight" said Mr. Granby. "That said, you'll see a few patches. There are even a few glaciers there, covered with snow all year round".

All my homesickness had dissipated by this point, to be replaced with wonder at all the various terrain that my home region of Sinnoh held. It felt so amazing to be flying over it all in a helicopter, something I'd never done before and might never do again.

I felt myself becoming slightly unfocused. Every time we passed by a certain landmark, Mr. Granby would recite some information about it, like he'd done this route dozens of times. Which, of course, he most likely had. I wasn't paying attention too much, and I started to feel slightly lethargic, although not in a bad way.

"And this is Coventry Falls" the pilot told us, pointing to the right. It was there that I saw one of the most amazing sights that I've ever seen in my life.

Against a majestic limestone cliff rising five hundred feet tall, there was a massive waterfall that I could see one or two brave souls rappelling down. The afternoon sun, mixed with the cascading water, actually created a rainbow.

"Wow! It's a rainbow!" exclaimed Angelina. "Not something you see every day, is it?"

I was quite amazed as well. I had, of course, seen rainbows before, but never one up this close. We were flying less than a hundred yards from the cliff at one point, fortunately a large enough distance that the rotors did not get clipped against the rock.

I was really enjoying this. The natural wonders of southeastern Sinnoh were quite spectacular, and I soon became filled with euphoria. It was just like Christmas morning for me at this point.

Eventually, I started feeling somewhat drowsy. You'd think that looking at such amazing things would keep me wide awake, but it was making me feel tired instead. Plus, there was something calming about the sounds of the helicopter that was almost like a lullaby.

Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.

* * *

**ANGELINA HAWLEY**

I don't know how one falls asleep on a helicopter, but Lucas somehow managed to do it.

At one point, probably about two hours into the ride, he simply keeled over and closed his eyes. The fact that his breathing became much slower made me know that he was asleep.

_Should I wake him up?, _I wondered eventually. Mr. Granby had told me that the most amazing sights were yet to come on the ride, and I didn't want Lucas to miss them. However, I wondered if maybe he hadn't gotten enough sleep the previous night, and that was why he seemed to be so tired now.

Eventually, I decided against it. Plus, there was a good chance he might wake on his own, since the helicopter was so loud and the pilot and I were occasionally exchanging a word or two.

"We're entering the Coronet Range" said Mr. Granby at one point. "We're about twenty minutes from the mansion. Look down, and you'll see some pretty amazing things".

Despite my fear of heights, I looked down. However, it didn't make me scared at all.

I saw mountains, capped with snow even in late July. There were high winds on some of them, blowing snow and ice crystals all over the place. They were rising majestically above a lake, much like turrets on a castle.

The lake was the most beautiful one I'd ever seen in my life. Deerling and Sawsbuck were grazing on the grass nearby, as well as drinking from the lake's crystalline waters. The sun was shining against the lake, creating something that would be any photographer's dream.

We passed more of these lakes over the next fifteen minutes, and each of them had deer Pokemon next to them. It was quite incredible, seeing nature from this high up.

Pine forests, lime mountains, rivers, and lakes...it truly looked like a paradise.

"We're about to land" said Mr. Granby eventually.

Even though I'd been sitting on the same seat in the helicopter for three hours, I didn't feel restless. Indeed, I wished that the ride could have lasted longer.

Lucas woke up abruptly. "We're about to land?"

I nodded. "Lucas, you missed the best part! We were going over mountains and lakes".

He looked at me angrily. "Why didn't you wake me up, then?"

I had no answer to that, and he appeared to have nothing else to say to me, so we spent the last few minutes of the ride in silence.

And then the house came into view.

Okay, it wasn't actually a house. It was more of a castle.

The manor appeared to have three floors, but there was surely a basement as well. It was so large that it would have taken up a third of a block back in Gardenia, and that wasn't even accounting for the yard.

The yard was forested, with pine trees, spruce trees, and deciduous trees. A narrow stream wound its way through the grounds of the mansion. There was even a balcony overlooking the woods that appeared to have a Jacuzzi on it.

In other words, if you're a ridiculously rich person who loves being near nature, there's a home somewhere in central Sinnoh with your name on it. Just cough up fifty million dollars, or however much it cost this Thomas Kemp guy to purchase, and it's yours.

It had been a difficult choice, to leave my parents. But if I hadn't made it, I would not have gotten to have this adventure.

Somehow, it was going to be all worth it.

* * *

**And there you have it. That's Chapter 10 of Snowbound: Volume 1.**

**Now that we're in the double digits in terms of chapters released, I'll take a moment to share my stats with you. I'm pleased with what I have so far:**

**Words: 36,453**

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**I'll see you guys next time!**


	11. The Great Estate

**This is the longest chapter yet of Snowbound: Volume 1. I'm aiming to make them even longer than this, but, for now, this is what you get.**

**I'm so excited, too. This is the first chapter of a new arc in the story, one I've been looking forward to writing for some time now. And if anyone wants to chat with me on Discord, just follow the contact information on my profile page.**

**I'd love it if more of you would leave a review on this story. I've only gotten twenty so far, and I'd really like to hear what more of you think. Even one word is fine.**

**Finally, there is no author's note on the end of this chapter. I just didn't want to ruin the ending. Enjoy!**

* * *

**LUCAS ENFIELD**

We landed on the roof of the manor, as that was where the helipad was. I was still a little annoyed with Angelina for not waking me up as we were flying over the mountains, but I was going to let it go. That really was the best thing to do.

Chances were, we were going to be spending a lot of time with each other over the next few days, weeks, or months...however long we ended up staying at the manor. Therefore, it wouldn't do to hold a grudge.

Just then, I saw a man walk up to the roof; I saw that there was a circular stairwell, much like a fire escape, that led up to where we were, and that was how the man had gotten up here.

"Hey, Thomas" said Mr. Granby. "I've come bearing two passengers, who will be staying with you for a little while".

I don't know why, but something about the word choice Mr. Granby had used there felt just a little demeaning. We were living beings, not just _passengers. _However, I wasn't going to argue with him; that would only serve to make things more awkward during our stay at the manor.

Angelina and I got out of the helicopter and made our way over to the man. He was fairly tall, with graying hair, and I guessed that he was maybe in his mid-fifties. He shook both of our paws, but, in light of what had happened to Angelina, I made sure not to scratch him with my spike.

"Well, I'm Thomas Kemp" the man said. "It's nice to meet you".

I nodded in response. "It's nice to meet you as well". I often get nervous when I meet new people, and this was no exception. I knew that I had no other option than to trust this man, though, so I was determined to be as polite as possible.

"Do you want to head inside now?" he asked me and Angelina. "Or do you want to admire the view a little more?"

I didn't even hesitate before responding with, "I would like to admire the view more".

Mr. Kemp nodded. "Okay then. I'll be on the ground, at the bottom of the fire escape. Come meet me when you are ready for the tour of the manor".

I barely even registered the man leaving the roof, or Mr. Granby piloting the helicopter back towards Pastoria City. I was too fixated on the view from here.

It was quite something, I'll tell you that. The lawn of the Kemp manor seemed to go on for a very long distance, and it was surrounded by a steel fence that was roughly ten feet tall. I could see a gate in the distance, and I wondered if Mr. Kemp would allow us to exit it and explore the forest some more.

There was something about this forest and these mountains that were calling out to me. As a human, I hadn't gone outside too much; I just didn't spend too much time appreciating the great outdoors. And you can criticize me as much as you want for that, but it was still true.

I remembered hearing something about Pokemon being more tuned into nature than humans, probably from middle school biology. If that was indeed the case, it was being proven true right here.

I could see the limestone cliffs in the distance, with grassy paths leading up them. The forest went on for miles and miles, and there were a couple of rivers winding their way through. There was even a crystal-clear lake at one point.

All that is to say that my surroundings were quite gorgeous. It had been quite an adventure to get here, and I looked forward to hopefully getting to explore the area.

"Mr. Kemp's probably waiting for us" Angelina said eventually. "I hate to get down from here, but we should probably see the inside of the house. I don't want to get lost later".

"I know what you're saying" I replied. I didn't have a watch, but I knew that it was late afternoon by now, judging by the position of the sun. "Let's go".

We made our way down the fire escape, and, at the bottom, there was Mr. Kemp, exactly where he'd said he would be.

"You guys ready for the tour?" he asked us. "We've got a lot of ground to cover".

Both of us nodded.

The front door of the Kemp manor was made out of red oak wood, with a golden lion gargoyle knocker. However, it was clear that nobody was home, judging by the fact that all the lights were off. Therefore, Mr. Kemp didn't knock on said door.

Instead, he typed in the passcode for the door, which appeared to be a long one. Either way, I wasn't paying attention to what it was, because it was impossible to with the sheer speed at which he was punching the numbers in.

Eventually, he opened the front door of the mansion, and we stepped inside.

The interior of the manor looked old-fashioned, but also comfortable. It wasn't too fancy, but it was clearly just fancy enough for Thomas Kemp.

And I could appreciate that. Most rich peoples' homes I had seen, either in pictures or in person, had appeared very fancy on the inside. The fact that this one wasn't was more than a little refreshing.

The front hall was situated in between two stairwells that both led up to the second floor. From the second floor, there were additional flights of stairs leading up to the third and highest floor. The floor was made of dark brown linoleum, but there was also a rich red carpet with golden trim running up both stairways, much like a crimson river.

In front of us was a large grandfather clock that stated that it was 5:23 PM. Unless we'd literally been admiring the view for forty-five minutes, that meant that we'd arrived at the manor a little behind schedule.

_Oh well. It doesn't really matter now._

Hanging from the ceiling was a wooden chandelier that looked rather old-fashioned. It was clear to see that this house had been built a long time ago, because it sure looked ancient.

Mr. Kemp led us down the hallway to the left, and pointed out the kitchen on the right. It was situated next to a dining room with a table so long that, if two people were seated on opposite ends, one would have to shout for the other to hear what they were saying.

"Wow, that's a big dining table" I said. "That seats sixteen, if I am not mistaken?"

"Indeed it does" Mr. Kemp replied. "But it's usually just me there. I live alone, you see, and I seldom have guests".

"You live alone?" Angelina asked. Scratching her mint green chin, she eventually said, "Don't you have a wife or something?"

The man shook his head. "That's all I'll say about my personal life for now" he replied. "I live alone, and have for fifteen years. And I don't foresee that changing any time in the near future".

It was then that I started feeling sorry for Mr. Kemp. He was very, very rich, and yet in spite of that, or maybe even because of it, he didn't have that many friends. Nobody to share this large, luxurious mansion with. He'd made it clear that he was closed off, at least for now, to questions about his family, so I decided not to press him further.

After the kitchen, I saw what appeared to be a statue of Sir Aaron. It was six feet tall, so roughly life size, and he was holding his staff, which was also made of stone.

"Is that a statue of Sir Aaron?" Angelina asked Mr. Kemp.

"Yes, it is. The first known human aura user. He's one person I greatly admire, and that's why I have a statue of him in my house".

_Well, it's good to have people to look up to, I guess. Although that IS a weird way of showing your admiration for a historical figure._

The statue was admittedly very impressive, albeit not as much so as it would have been to see Sir Aaron in real life. Of course, that wasn't possible anymore; he'd been dead for centuries upon centuries.

We followed Mr. Kemp further down the hallway, and he showed us the house's living room, which looked pretty much like a standard living room, even if it was a little more upscale than most.

There was a stone fireplace on the edge of the room, which presumably led upwards towards the chimney on the roof. There were a sofa and two armchairs on opposite ends of a colorful rug, made out of some material that tickled my feet. Stacked on top of the fireplace were photographs that looked extremely fragile.

"This is my living room" he said unnecessarily. "Sometimes, when I do have friends and other researchers over, I invite them in here for cheese and crackers. But it's not a room I use often, because, like I said, I don't have guests very much".

He then showed us the second floor of the house, and I randomly thought of another question for him.

"Mr. Kemp, do you have any servants?" I blurted out. It was probably a rather insensitive thing of me to say, and I had to resist the urge to put my paw in front of my mouth; that had been so stupid.

"Yeah, I do. They live in a guest cottage that's on the other side of the property".

I wondered how I could have missed that as we were flying in on Mr. Granby's helicopter. Most likely, that was because the other sights were so grand.

I was, however, relieved that Mr. Kemp didn't seem too mad from me asking the question. I'd intended for it to be a relatively casual one; I'd assumed that all rich people had servants, or at least most of them. But sometimes I just can't keep my mouth shut.

"This is where you two will be sleeping" said Mr. Kemp, pointing out the room. "So drop your bags here, please".

I should probably mention that, for the whole time I'd been walking around the mansion, I'd been carrying my duffel bag with me. Fortunately, due to its lack of articles of clothing, it wasn't very heavy. Not only that, but my physical strength as a Lucario was far greater than it had been as a human.

Our bedroom overlooked what I clearly saw was the guest cottage now. It had to be, because it didn't look like a garage. The guest cottage was roughly fifty yards away from our window, and beyond that there was the stream that I'd seen earlier.

_This place could grow on me. It could._

The beds themselves were fairly simple. They were both twin beds, not the fanciest thing in the world. Clearly, they'd been intended for children.

_It seems like he'd been planning on having kids, once, _I thought. This time, however, I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut, and able to control my impulse to ask about that.

It might have been rather simple, but I wasn't going to complain. After all, Mr. Kemp hadn't _had _to provide us with housing. He could simply have refused to take us, and there were worse places to be.

_Like in the hands of a couple of poachers._

There was a dresser and a closet, but I didn't pay attention to anything that was in either of those two places. I just didn't concern myself with them, and I didn't want to invade Mr. Kemp's privacy further.

"I'll show you the servants' cottage now" said Mr. Kemp, gesturing at us to follow him. He'd been standing in the doorway the whole time that I'd been admiring the room with Angelina.

"I'm liking this place so far" Angelina said, almost as though she were reading my thoughts. "I've never gotten to stay at any rich person's house".

Mr. Kemp chuckled. "I don't know if I like the term _rich. _Maybe _well-off _or _well-to-do _would be better".

"Why is that?" I asked him. "There's no shame in being rich; hell, I wish _I _were rich".

"I just find the word so shallow. It implies that I'm snobbish, which I really do my best not to be. In any case, come with me".

* * *

The servant's cottage was a lot smaller than the main house, and it only had two floors. The front door of this cottage was also a lot simpler; it looked like the door to my parents' garage at home.

Almost immediately at that thought, I felt as though I were on the verge of tears once more. My homesickness had temporarily disappeared, but now that I was on a tour of this unfamiliar place, I felt it return.

My sense of homesickness was further exacerbated by the fact that we were visiting a servant's cottage. The idea of having servants cook meals for me and clean my house just seemed so foreign compared to anything I was used to.

Mr. Kemp didn't knock; he simply entered and turned on the light.

"David?" he announced.

A man in his late twenties with curly auburn hair, who had evidently been lying asleep on the couch in the living room of the cottage, sprang into an upright position like someone who had been hit with defibrillator paddles. He then stood up, raising his hand to his forehead like a soldier would do in a salute.

"Yes sir" David responded.

"I'm just showing these two around my estate, but will you please cook dinner for us? It's their first night here as guests, and I want everything to be perfect, okay?"

David nodded, looking rather fearful of his boss. I felt a slight flash of contempt for Mr. Kemp in that moment, because I don't think that it's right for bosses to make their workers feel fear of them. But that's just me.

"What should I make?" David asked Mr. Kemp. Despite having only woken up not one minute ago, he looked perfectly alert and ready to cook dinner for us.

"This is an extra-special one, so make grilled chicken, Caesar salad, garlic bread, and apple pie for dessert".

I hadn't realized just how hungry I was until Mr. Kemp listed the dishes he wanted prepared, and that's when my stomach started growling like a caged lion, demanding food.

"Okay, sir. It'll be ready as soon as possible".

It was unbelievable, as though David had been programmed to do this...like a robot, almost. I found that rather creepy, but I didn't ask any questions. I didn't think that would be a good idea right now.

I watched David make his way to the main house, and, even though I did feel somewhat bad for him, as well as guilty that we were profiting off of a servant's labors, I was very grateful for what he was doing. I felt as though I could eat a Ponyta right about now.

Mr. Kemp showed us the second floor of the servants' cottage, but there really wasn't that much to see. There was only a bedroom, bathroom, and walk-in closet.

"That's about all there is here" he said, echoing my thoughts. "Now let's get back to the main house. There's still more to see".

He led us back down the stairs and to the manor once more. The door, even if it had seemed impressive the first time, seemed even more so this time, perhaps because I'd just seen the far less impressive servants' cottage.

"So does David do everything for you?" Angelina asked Mr. Kemp as he was entering the passcode to unlock the door again. (I presumed that it was the kind of door that automatically locks behind you after you close it).

"He's actually only my cook. I couldn't cook to save my life, ever. The housekeepers come once a week, every Monday".

_Of course he has housekeepers. This guy is loaded._

I shot a glare at Angelina, but only for a moment; I couldn't afford for her to get too mad at me, or to get too mad at her; after all, we'd be living together for an indeterminate amount of time. Still, I was more than a little annoyed with her for saying that.

"I see" Angelina replied.

Mr. Kemp showed us the basement, which was my favorite part of the house, even though it didn't have views of the outside world at all.

What it _did _have was a flat-screen TV with several video game consoles plugged in, a home gym with a treadmill, exercise bike, weights, and a bench, yoga mats, bean bag chairs, a small home office, and a pool table.

Oh yeah...and the guy had an actual pool, too.

It wasn't an Olympic-sized pool, but it was still a good size for one that you'd have at your house. In my own hometown of Gardenia, it was only a lucky few who had pools at their homes, and neither I nor Angelina could count myself among them. What a pity.

"Before we go to dinner, I want to set some ground rules for your time here at the Kemp manor. These aren't the same rules that you are used to at home, but this is my house, so you'll have to follow my rules".

I gulped. The way Mr. Kemp had said that, he sure sounded stern. That is the type of person you do not want to cross, no matter if a plane were to fall from the sky and leave a hole of indeterminate size in the surface of the Earth.

"First of all, you may go outside whenever you wish. However, no matter what, you are not to venture beyond the fence surrounding my house. The roof is fine, so are the little woods inside the perimeter, but everything else is off limits".

"Uh, why?" I asked him. "I'm eighteen, Angelina's seventeen. We're practically adults now, we can handle this".

"I'm sorry to do this, but it's for your own safety" Mr. Kemp replied tersely. "You're safe inside the perimeter of the fence; outside of it, you are not. This is how it is and this is how it goes".

I didn't know precisely how he knew that, but I didn't ask him about it either. It was simply something that couldn't be questioned.

"The next rule is, tread very carefully around this house. There are so many things that are fragile in here that you're bound to break something if you don't stay on your toes, quite literally in some cases. Some of them are family heirlooms; I really don't want them breaking".

Both of us nodded at that. That seemed like a simple enough rule to follow; besides, it was common sense here.

"Finally, and this is an important one, the storeroom in the attic is off limits. You're not allowed to go in there, nor are you allowed to speak of what _might _be in there. It's simply taboo, okay?"

I wasn't completely sure of this, but I thought I saw a tear form in his eye when he talked about the last rule. It could have been just me, though.

"Those are the rules you must follow when you are staying at my house. Are they all perfectly clear?"

"Yes" Angelina replied, and I nodded as well. Mr. Kemp seemed rather intimidating, even though he was also supposedly a nice man, in spite of the way he treated his servants. We were both determined at this point not to annoy him.

"In any case," Mr. Kemp said, "dinner's about to be ready pretty soon. I think we should hang out in the living room until it is".

_Wow, David really cooks quickly, _I thought to myself. _I sure hope that it's properly cooked, the food is._

I shook that doubt out of my mind. If David didn't cook the food to the point that it was safe for consumption, Mr. Kemp would have fired him long ago. I knew that I shouldn't worry so much; that just wasn't going to help matters in the least.

As Angelina and myself sat down in armchairs in the living room, I watched a fire crackle in the fireplace. I wasn't sure who'd started it, but it was rather comforting all the same. It reminded me of some winter nights I'd had with my parents at home, when we'd read stories and play board games next to the fire.

_Ugh...why did I have to think of that NOW?_

My homesickness had returned in full force. Indeed, I figured that that was going to be a pattern here. I'd be able to distract myself briefly, but then it would come back, the same way it always did.

The only way to fix that would be to go and explore the forests and mountains in the distance. Somehow, I felt like that was a second home to me now that I was a Lucario. I could look for wild Pokemon in the woods, swim in the crystal-clear rivers and lakes, and go picking for Oran berries.

And then I remembered Mr. Kemp's first rule, the one that stated that Angelina and myself were not permitted to leave the gates surrounding the manor under any circumstances.

_Oh, Arceus, you've consigned me to a very cruel fate indeed._

* * *

**ANGELINA HAWLEY**

I thought back to the last time I'd eaten dinner with Lucas, back at the steak house in Pastoria City.

It might have only been a few days ago, but it felt more like a few lifetimes ago. So many things had changed since then, never to be the same again.

I'd been quite ashamed of the way I had conducted myself at the restaurant. Never had I known myself to eat that much, that quickly. Normally, if I had tried that, I'd have a major case of the hiccups, or else throw it all up right afterwards.

But no, somehow I was able to manage it. It was a day I was eager to put behind me, to be sure.

However, now that we were going to be having another very nice dinner with Mr. Kemp, I couldn't help but let my mind wander. I had a flashback to that day.

_I felt the scratch as Lucas reached forward at lightning speed in order to catch my glass. It didn't hurt too much; I think I was more shocked than anything._

_Taking a quick glance at my bleeding hand, I saw that it was healing up very quickly. A lot faster than it should have been, and that made me wonder if there was magic involved somehow._

Don't be silly, Angelina, _I told myself. _Magic doesn't exist.

_Then again, we did live in a crazy world, a world full of Pokemon. Anything could be seemingly possible with the proper technology._

"_Sorry" Lucas said, holding his paw up to his mouth, looking very guilty indeed. "Didn't mean to scratch you right there"._

_I wiped some of the lemonade off my shirt and responded with, "Don't be. It's my own damn fault for being such a clumsy ass"._

_There was a very long, awkward silence as I tried to clean myself up. It was no use, though; my shirt seemed to have absorbed the lemonade, and it wasn't going to get off._

_After that, I felt as though we were getting far more looks than we had before. This was saying something, because being in a fancy restaurant with a white-furred Lucario already attracted a lot of attention. _

_It was then that my stomach gave an extremely loud growl, and yet I was sure that I was the only one who could hear it. I didn't have the slightest idea why._

_Fortunately, not long after that, the waiter came by with our orders. We'd each gotten sixteen ounces of filet mignon and a truffle cheese baked potato. I dug in almost immediately, eating my food greedily._

_I saw Lucas pick up his glass of water and tip it down his throat, but I barely paid it any mind. I was very embarrassed at how quickly I was eating. By the time he was halfway done with his steak, only a quarter of mine remained on my plate._

"Angelina? You there?"

I snapped out of it and saw that Lucas had tapped me on the shoulder.

"Yeah" I replied. "Just thinking about our date the other day".

Lucas gave me a strange look. "You're calling it a date? I guess it is, then. But I'm not...we're not…".

"I know. It was just a casual date that friends go on" I said, trying to sound as even as possible. In reality, I could feel my mint green face blush slightly, and I was sure that Lucas could see it.

"Enough sentimentality, guys" Mr. Kemp said. "Here we are".

Just then, David came in with the food. He carried in a large platter of grilled chicken, a large bowl of Caesar salad, and a plate of garlic bread. He somehow carried all of this at once, without dropping anything, like he'd been doing this for years. Which, of course, he probably had.

"I hope everything is up to your standards, sir" David told Mr. Kemp. "I do my best every time, and you know that".

"Indeed you do, and I expect that this time will be no different" our host replied. "All right, guys, you can dig in".

Now that I was a little more used to being a Lucario (although I say that very lightly indeed), I no longer felt the same desperation to eat as quickly as I had at the steak house with Lucas. Instead, I was a little more careful with the way I chewed, trying not to be too loud or too fast.

The chicken was pretty good. It was covered in this orange sauce that appeared spicier than it was. That said, it did have a slight kick to it, and I found myself taking sips of my water glass after every few bites.

Using a fork and knife in the same way that Mr. Kemp did, a lot more daintily than I had even as a human, was difficult for sure. It's one thing to learn proper posture and table manners as a human, but it's another thing altogether when you are a Lucario who was once a human.

As for the Caesar salad, David had done a pretty decent job on it as well. It was the same with the garlic bread. It was pretty good, but not spectacular.

Even if the food had been world-class, something you'd find at a five-star restaurant, it would still have been a poor distraction from the thoughts that were swirling around my head.

Hiding away in Mr. Kemp's mansion might be a temporary solution, but it wasn't a permanent one. Sooner or later, I'd have to leave; if nothing else, for my own sanity. I knew that Lucas would want to go with me too. I wanted to figure out the mystery of how I'd turned into a Lucario, and how Lucas's transformation had started everything.

Unfortunately, that was going to be difficult if we couldn't leave the manor grounds...which Mr. Kemp forbade us to do. He said that we wouldn't be safe on the other side of the fence.

And that added a new question to my mind, bouncing around like a table tennis ball inside of my brain.

_Why?_


	12. Rocket Men and Snow Spirits

**This isn't the longest chapter of the story, but I still think it's a fairly respectable length. We've also hit 2,000 views now, which is what I like to see. I'm glad that people are enjoying this story enough to keep reading.**

**As you can tell, I'm introducing a new character in this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy reading his segments.**

**There's also an announcement at the bottom, which I suggest you read. It's pretty important.**

* * *

**NOAH MERRILL**

It was early evening, and yet you wouldn't know it from the lighting inside of Team Rocket's Sinnoh branch headquarters. It was always kept relatively dim, just enough to read by, but not overly bright.

I had always figured that it must have been difficult to find that happy medium of just bright enough that someone could perform basic tasks required of a Team Rocket grunt, while not being too bright so that electricity was wasted.

The fact was, only a certain amount of the electricity could be taken from the outside power grid. Otherwise, people would notice, and it would only be a matter of time before it was traced to a small mountain in the central part of the Sinnoh region.

By the way, I should probably introduce myself first. My name's Noah, and I was a Team Rocket grunt who lived and worked at the base. I was a computer hardware technician, so if something needed to be done to fix a computer at the base, I was your guy. Or one of your guys, because there were a few others with the exact same job title as me. I wasn't unique in that respect.

In any case, on the evening of Saturday, July 29, 201X, I was eating dinner with some of my colleagues at the base. The food was bland, but, then again, it always was.

"I wonder what this mystery meat is" said Freddie, one of the other grunts. "It sure smells bad".

"Well, I just hope it doesn't taste as bad as it smells" I replied. "Really, we should feel lucky that we have food at all. It's not as though it's easy to get food here".

Freddie nodded; he knew that what I was saying was true, but I didn't blame him for not liking the mystery meat that much. Truth be told, as I put some of it in my mouth, I didn't like its taste either.

This was, however, the fare that I'd grown used to during the time I'd spent at the base. Four years, if my memory served me correctly. Point being, when you're accustomed to it, it's really not that bad.

Most of the rest of the dinner passed in silence, with either Freddie or myself dropping in a line to complain about the food. That was the one thing about my existence here that never got old.

The dining room looked almost like a church sanctuary, except that all sorts of pipes were running through it, and it appeared to be made out of brown rock; which, of course, it was.

I shuddered, fearful of the whole place caving in and crushing all of us. Even though I'd been living here ever since soon after I'd graduated high school, the feeling of claustrophobia never fully went away. It _would _never go away, for there's something about human beings that means we just don't like being underground.

As terrifying as that prospect was, there was another one that was, if anything, far worse.

The mountain had been carefully inspected before the base was set up, just to make sure that rock slides were guarded against. There were gates in place to make sure that they didn't get too out of hand, but, if the gates failed, then the nightmare scenario would come to pass.

I imagined the trigger being anything, like a bomb going off somewhere, or something exploding in general, or even just inclement weather outside of the mountain. Sirens would go off, and every way in or out of the HQ would be sealed; the mountain would reclaim the headquarters.

It would take roughly three weeks to run out of air, but the sense of utter hopelessness would pervade the area for the entire time. And, if I were still in here when that happened, I'd be a part of it too.

_I hope that I get a capture mission, _I thought as I was envisioning this scenario. _Then I can be away if and when that happens._

I didn't care about the others in the HQ. As far as I was concerned, they were criminals.

You might be asking why I associated myself with them. The truth was, I didn't have a choice. Plus, if you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system. That's a lot more effective than rebelling from outside of the system.

Ah, but enough about that.

Freddie must have noticed that I had a worried expression on my face, because he asked me what was wrong.

"Nothing, Freddie" I replied. "I was just...thinking about things".

He nodded, but I could tell that he was still very much curious as to what exactly those _things _were. I paid him no mind, however, and finished eating my portion of mystery meat.

The food might not have tasted the best, but I still felt slightly hungry, and I wished I could have had seconds. Unfortunately, there were no seconds here. You got exactly enough calories to make it to the next meal, no more, no less. The nutritionists here were very precise indeed, and had made all the calculations as to who would get the most to eat and who would get the least.

Eventually, it was time to head into the auditorium for evening meeting. This was the nightly event at which we were given updates on Team Rocket's missions, and any other news that was deemed important enough for us to know.

If you were a very important member of Team Rocket, then you'd also get more classified intelligence briefings, but that was all. Information was given out on a strictly need-to-know basis, meaning that, if you didn't need to know it, they wouldn't let you know it.

_That's almost like a slogan, isn't it?_, I thought, internally laughing but being careful enough not to laugh on the outside.

We made our way down the hallway in an unorganized line towards the auditorium. It was practically a river of people, and, for an organization that was so formal, you wouldn't have thought that it would have been this crazy, but it was.

Along the way, we went down a couple of steep staircases. These were steep enough that you had to be careful not to trip and fall, but fortunately they weren't slippery. The water pipes rarely leaked, meaning that everything in here was as dry as a desert, or so it seemed to me.

The auditorium was just like your typical high school auditorium, only it was much larger. The ceiling of the room was at a height of at least seven or eight stories, and the room seated as many as five thousand people, in fifty rows of a hundred apiece.

I caught Freddie's eye as I was making my way towards the front row. I knew that Freddie didn't like being the center of attention, so he chose a seat closer to the back.

Normally, I would sit near him; it was fair to call him my best friend at the Team Rocket base. However, today I didn't quite feel like it, so instead I sat in the front row, right in front of the stage.

The head of Team Rocket's Sinnoh branch, a man named Henry Evansville, walked up to the podium on the stage. He was a tall bald man with glasses, and he looked like a high school principal to me. If I didn't know better, and had simply been seeing the scene in a movie, I would have thought that he was giving a commencement address at a graduation ceremony.

Of course, I _did _know better. This was nothing of the sort.

"Good evening, my fellow Rocket Men" said Mr. Evansville in his cold, cruel voice. And yes, Rocket Men was the demonym for members of Team Rocket. As silly as it might have sounded, that was what we were supposed to call ourselves.

I personally didn't like that name. It felt rather demeaning, but who was I to complain? After all, I was just a simple grunt.

Mr. Evansville cleared his throat and gripped the podium tightly, as though he might fall down without it. But the look on his face was one of pure desire; he wanted nothing more than to carry out his organization's goals; namely, to capture, experiment on, and sometimes even kill exotic Pokemon.

"Only those of you who have had classified intelligence briefings will know this by now. For those of you who _have _had those briefings, this will not be news to you, but, to everyone else, I will explain what has happened".

I sat on the edge of my seat. Clearly, judging by the tone of Mr. Evansville's voice, something major had transpired.

"In the town of Gardenia, Sinnoh, a suburb of Pastoria City located just to the west of said city, a young man by the name of Lucas Enfield has transformed into a Lucario".

_Never heard of that happening before, _I thought to myself.

There were plenty of gasps within the audience, but, unlike mine, most of them were excited gasps. They couldn't wait for the opportunity to capture this Lucas Enfield guy.

Mr. Evansville continued. "He is eighteen years old and has white fur. Earlier today, it was reported that he was driven to the Greater Pastoria Laboratory. He hasn't been seen in the Pastoria City area since".

The head of Team Rocket's Sinnoh branch pressed a button on a device resembling a TV remote, and a picture of a Lucario popped up onto the screen.

He looked pretty much like any standard Lucario, if a bit on the taller side. That is, except for the fact that his fur color was as white as snow.

"A search party will eventually be sent out to retrieve him. The goal will be to capture him in a Pokeball and send him back here to headquarters unharmed. We'll need to find out exactly how he transformed; that is our goal as Rocket Men".

Almost immediately after Mr. Evansville said the words _search party, _I got an idea.

Even though I was a member of Team Rocket, I was morally opposed to capturing Pokemon like that, especially because I knew what they intended to do to Lucas Enfield if and when they got a hold of him.

I could and should sign up for the capture mission! That way, if I could find Lucas Enfield, I could warn him that Team Rocket was looking for him!

I was rarely so confident in any of my plans, but that one sounded pretty good if I did say so myself.

"There is more" said Mr. Evansville. "Along with Lucas Enfield was another Lucario. Except this Lucario is also a former human".

_Oh?_

"Her name is Angelina Hawley, and plenty of anecdotal evidence suggests that she is this young man's girlfriend. She has mint green fur and was seen departing Greater Pastoria Laboratory along with Lucas Enfield early this afternoon. They are believed to be together at the moment, and not just in a romantic way. They are in the same location".

I gulped, but I was careful to do so in a way that wasn't too noticeable. There were now two people in danger thanks to this organization that I was a member of.

_Okay, I have to put that plan into place. If I don't get selected, Lucas Enfield and Angelina Hawley are going to be captured, and I'll know that it could have been prevented. And I'll have to watch whatever experiments they do on them._

I shuddered to imagine it. The first chance I got, I would write my name on that list. Basic human decency demanded it.

* * *

**LUCAS ENFIELD**

Like Angelina had said, dinner was pretty good, even if it wasn't as spectacular as one might have hoped given that it was at the home of an extremely rich man.

The whole time we were eating, however, I was pondering the rules that Mr. Kemp had set for us. More specifically, I was thinking about rules number one and three.

The second rule, the one about treading carefully around the house, was one I completely understood. I wouldn't have been happy if a guest at my house had broken one of my family's heirlooms, even if it was only on accident. I got where Mr. Kemp was coming from.

The third rule, the one about not entering a specific room on the third floor, mystified me a little more. I wasn't sure why Mr. Kemp wanted us to avoid it, but, after only a few minutes of thinking about it, I came to a conclusion. It wasn't a particularly satisfying conclusion, but I found it to be the most reasonable out of all the possibilities.

_Mr. Kemp is hiding something there, and he doesn't want us to know what it is._

I didn't want to believe it. I was trusting this man with quite possibly my life, and if he was hiding some secret from me and Angelina...did I really trust him that much?

_No matter what, I kind of have to. He's the reason we are safe here._

Eventually, once all three of us were done with our food, Mr. Kemp had David clear away all our plates. A few minutes later, the chef came back in with dessert.

It was a large apple pie fresh out of the oven, still steaming and all. It looked absolutely delicious, but there was just one problem.

_Apple pie. _I was almost having flashbacks back to my date with Angelina at Le Resto-Grill. That was the same dessert she'd eaten two of after I'd given mine to her.

_This time, hopefully I actually get to eat mine. _I loved apple pie; it was one of my favorite desserts, second only to key lime pie, but they didn't have too many key limes in Sinnoh.

David cut the pie into slices, and I was able to taste mine. It was absolutely heavenly, the cinnamon flavor mixing in well with that of the baked apples and the crust. Before long, I'd finished one slice and moved on to another one.

Once we were done with dessert, David cleared that away too.

_Damn, _I thought. _It must be really nice having servants do everything like that for you. I wish I had that kind of money._

_But I'm going to appreciate the time I'm spending here, because I'm getting a little taste of the rich life._

Yes. I was satisfied with that, but the fact was that I was still contemplating the first rule Mr. Kemp had given us, the one regarding not being allowed outside the boundaries of the fence.

_I'll think about that later, _I thought to myself. _Can't get too worked up about it right now._

I could live with that, but it didn't mean I had to like it.

* * *

The rest of the evening was actually somewhat pleasant. Mr. Kemp started a fire in the living room, and Angelina and I played chess against each other. I'll admit that she was better at it than me.

This went on for about two and a half hours, by which time it was getting pretty dark outside. "Time for you guys to go to bed" said Mr. Kemp.

I was going to protest. After all, I usually stayed up a good bit later than this when I was at home. Then again, since I was at Mr. Kemp's manor, I had to play by Mr. Kemp's rules, just like he'd said before dinner.

"After all", our host continued, "you've had a long journey today. You should sleep, get some rest".

Somehow, almost as though he were using the power of charmspeak against us, or more likely the power of suggestion, my eyes started to feel rather heavy. It was the kind of feeling that makes you know that you have at most an hour before you fall asleep, no matter where you are.

I nodded. "Angelina, are you ready to go to bed? I'm pretty tired". I didn't want to go to bed before her and risk her waking me up.

"Yeah" she replied. "I'm ready".

After going upstairs and brushing our fangs, as well as bidding good night to Mr. Kemp, both of us got into bed.

Now, I can't speak for Angelina. Maybe she had a great night of sleep, and had good dreams as well. Me personally, I did _not _have good dreams.

Almost immediately after wrapping myself in the covers, I sank into a nightmare.

I was walking along an avenue, past trees that were lining the street. I realized that it was a suburban area, not too unlike Gardenia. It made me feel slightly homesick, too, but I pushed that thought out of my head. I could think about it when I woke up, but it didn't have to haunt my dreams as well.

There was no one else on the street, no one to notice or care that I was a white-furred Lucario. That was a big relief, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, this one might end up being a good dream after all.

It was then that it took a turn for the worse.

The sky turned white, the kind of color that lets you know that snow is on the horizon. Flurries started coming down, but they were just flurries. So why did they make me feel so nervous?

_Seriously, Lucas, you love the snow. Why are you so scared of it now?_

"Ah, ha ha ha. Lucas Enfield. Welcome to my domain".

Suddenly, the scene shifted, and I was in the middle of a grove of pine trees, and it was nighttime. I was still aware that it was only a dream, but I didn't know what would happen. And I couldn't wake up, either, no matter how much I wanted to.

I was trapped inside my own mind!

"Who are you?" I was able to ask. I hoped I didn't talk in my sleep and wake up Angelina. I didn't want to alarm her.

There was more laughing, followed by a feminine voice that seemed to be as cold as ice.

"I'm Khione, the snow spirit" said the voice. "And, like I said, you are in my domain now. I'm going to make sure you know my power".

I couldn't see the snow spirit identifying herself as Khione, but I could most definitely hear the effects of her magic.

There was a howl of wind, followed by a veritable blizzard pouring down from the heavens. It was snowing at the same speed that rain falls.

Now, normally when snow falls at that speed, it's just sleet and doesn't accumulate on the ground. If it does stick, it's usually gone pretty soon after.

_This _snain, as I liked to call it, stuck to the ground easily, and more of it fell down from the sky. These "snowflakes" were literally the size of ice cream scoops, not the size of regular snowflakes.

Before long, I was up to my ankles in snow. And it was then that I knew something with absolute certainty.

"_You're_ the one who caused the blizzard in the Coronet Range" I announced, directing it right at Khione despite the fact that I couldn't see her.

"I'm sorry, Lucas. I can't hear you over how awesome this blizzard is".

I shook my fist at the air. "You created that blizzard, didn't you?"

I heard more laughing. "Indeed I did. But who cares? No one was hurt too badly by it".

Before I could argue with her, I woke up.

Sitting bolt upright in bed, I found that I was covered in a cold sweat. And, after learning that Khione had caused the blizzard, I knew something else.

_We have to stop her at all costs. Before it gets worse. Before it gets way, way worse. Before people die._

I scanned my room to make sure that I wasn't caught up in an insane blizzard. To make sure that I'd really woken up from my nightmare.

Fortunately, I was back in my bedroom at Mr. Kemp's estate. I had to admit, it was a pretty nice one, albeit a little dusty.

No sooner did I realize just how dusty it was than I felt the strongest urge to sneeze I'd ever felt. I had a lot of seasonal allergies as a human, and I had been hoping that they wouldn't carry over to my Lucario form.

Unfortunately, that was apparently too much to ask for.

I tried to sneeze as quietly as I could, quickly grabbing a tissue and holding it in front of my snout. In spite of that, I feared that I might have woken up Angelina, and I almost immediately thought of how she must feel to be woken up by that.

And then I looked around the room and saw that Angelina was gone.

_Where the hell did she go?, _I wondered. I wasn't necessarily mad at her, but I was quite curious indeed. Looking outside the window, I could tell that it was still nighttime, and, per the digital clock next to the bed, it was 1:57 AM. Clearly not a time anyone should be up.

And yet, my curiousity got the better of me. After throwing the tissue in the trash can, I made my way downstairs in order to look for Angelina.

It was then that I realized just how thirsty I was, so I headed to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water from the tap. According to Mr. Kemp, the drinking water had come directly from the mountain springs, and had been filtered out to make sure that there were no nasty chemicals in it, so it was one hundred percent safe.

I raised the glass to my lips and was about to tip it down my throat when I heard the sound of footsteps down the hallway floor, getting closer to the door.

After gulping down the water as quickly as I could and placing the empty glass in the sink, I decided, probably against my own better judgment, to open the door to the hallway that the footfalls were coming from.

There were no lights on in the house. In spite of that, I could clearly see that it was a being with mint green fur and closed eyes. It was Angelina Hawley, there was no mistaking it, and she was sleepwalking!

I tried to remember what you were supposed to do in order to help a sleepwalker find their way back to their bed, but my mind went blank. The number one priority, of course, was for Angelina to make it back to bed without getting hurt.

"Angelina, wake up" I whispered. I didn't want to rouse Mr. Kemp, which is why I said it so quietly. Of course, the louder I spoke, the more likely it would have been that Angelina woke up.

But she didn't. Her eyes remained practically glued shut, and that was when I felt a great degree of fear.

_Is Angelina possessed or what?_

Whatever the case, I had to get her back to the bedroom.

I knew that she would never approve of this were she awake and alert, but, fortunately, she wasn't. I grabbed her by the wrist and began leading her back towards the stairwell.

It wasn't easy to lead a sleepwalking person up the stairs and down the hallway back to the bedroom, but, somehow, I managed it. Angelina's eyes remained closed, and she gave no other indications of consciousness. I hoped that she would not remember me forcibly grabbing her wrist; something told me that it would have been rather embarrassing for her if it had happened when she was aware of it.

Eventually, we made it back to my room, and I led Angelina back to her bed. "Do you think you can get in on your own?" I asked her.

There was no response, not like I'd expected any. She remained totally dead to the world, and I began to think that nothing would arouse her.

"Guess not" I replied, lifting her up and tucking her under her covers. "Angelina, you're pretty light" I realized, stating it out loud.

It was true. I'd never picked her up, but it seemed that Angelina weighed less right now than she probably did when she wasn't sleepwalking. That made no sense whatsoever, but I wasn't going to complain. Anything that made her easier to carry was fine by me.

_That was crazy, _I thought. _First the nightmare about Khione, and then Angelina sleepwalking. What's going to happen next?_

I didn't want to find out.

* * *

**I've got two things I have to say before I go, two reasons that updates for this story may (read: will) get slower.**

**First off, in two weeks, I'm going on a ten-day trip, during which I won't have access to my laptop (which is what I use to type all of these stories). It'll be hard without my computer, because I've had it since Christmas of 2016 and it's practically a third limb at this point, but I'll have to manage. There will be no updates to either of my stories during that time.**

**The other news is, notice how I said "either" of the stories? I'll just say this: Be on the lookout for "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Fallen Angel".**

**Please leave a review, because that's the only way I know if you guys like the story or not. And I'll see you guys next time.**


	13. Trapped Outside the Closet

**Yeah, this isn't a long chapter, but I figured that it ended at the right place. You'll see what I mean at the bottom of this chapter.**

**If you haven't checked out Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Fallen Angel yet, I suggest you do so. I'm currently working on that one as well, and Chapter 2 should be posted later today if things go well. **

**I've also only gotten a small number of reviews, and I'd love to receive more. So please, tell me what you think of this chapter in the review box. Thanks.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**LUCAS ENFIELD**

I wasn't able to get any more sleep that night.

The reasons for that should be pretty obvious. I was still shaken by my dream; at this point, I was assuming that everything that happened in these dreams, these visions I was having, was happening in reality. These dreams were just far too lucid for my liking otherwise.

And then, when I'd gotten up to go downstairs, I'd seen Angelina sleepwalking as though she were possessed. Maybe sleepwalking is supposed to be a common thing, but I was shocked that she hadn't tripped down the stairs, and that I hadn't been able to wake her up, as though she were in a coma.

_But people in comas don't walk!_

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. That was quite a crazy event, and one I would ponder later. I kept tossing and turning for the next three hours and fifteen minutes, trying to find a comfortable enough position to drift off once more.

And yes, I was counting the minutes, paying attention to the digital clock. Perhaps that wasn't the best strategy for someone trying to fall asleep, but I just hadn't been able to stop myself from doing so.

By the time the first rays of the sun began shining through the window of the room I was sharing with Angelina, I knew it was a lost cause. The windows did have blinds, so that it would still be possible to block the sun out, but it wouldn't be blocked out of my body clock. At this point, my circadian rhythm was fully convinced that it was daytime.

So I got up and brushed my teeth. Even though I used an electric toothbrush, I somehow didn't wake up Angelina. Clearly, she was having better dreams than me, even after she'd been sleepwalking.

_Okay, maybe not "better". I'm sure she's scared too. Maybe…"less terrifying"?_

It wasn't that important right now, so I decided to go down to the kitchen to pour myself a glass of water. As I was raising it to my lips to drink, I heard the sound of footsteps coming from the nearby stairwell.

Mr. Kemp, in his nightshirt and pajama pants, was making his way down the stairs towards the kitchen. Per the grandfather clock that stood majestically nearby, it was 5:47 AM, and so he was also pretty early in getting up.

I decided not to bother him on that. "Good morning, Mr. Kemp" I told him.

Mr. Kemp chuckled at me. "Well, well, I thought I'd be the first one up. I'm usually up pretty early myself, but you've got me beat today".

_Should I tell him about my nightmare? Would he believe me? Can I trust him with it?_

On paper, it would have seemed like a no-brainer. After all, I was trusting Mr. Kemp with so much already, why did it make sense to keep this secret from him? However, I knew that Mr. Kemp might have a hard time dealing with the knowledge that the blizzards were going to increase in intensity, and that we were in serious danger.

In the end, I decided to tell him. "I've actually been up since two in the morning" I said.

"Oh, why is that?" he asked, sounding somewhat concerned.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Had a nightmare" I replied, hoping that I sounded casual enough that he didn't decide to press me any further.

Mr. Kemp raised an eyebrow. "Care to tell me any more about this nightmare?"

At first, I considered not telling him. After all, I was 18 years old, not 8 years old. Plus, I didn't want to worry him too much over something that could very well have simply been a distraction.

"Sure" I replied. I wasn't sure at first if it was the right call, but Mr. Kemp didn't seem too incredulous, so I continued until I finished my story. This is what I said:

"I had a dream about a snow spirit who called herself Khione. She claimed that she was the one who caused me to turn into a Lucario".

Mr. Kemp scratched his chin. "Are you sure about that, Lucas? I've heard that the snow spirits are quite the can't trust them with anything".

"Wait...you know about the snow spirits?" I asked him. "Do they appear in your dreams too?"

Perhaps asking that question was tantamount to throwing caution to the wind, but, to my relief, Mr. Kemp simply nodded.

"They do, and we're not the only ones. They say that there are a certain amount of people who can sense these things, in addition to being able to sense aura".

This led me into another question, one that I thought almost immediately that I knew the answer to.

"I hate to ask, but...can you use aura? Like, at all?"

For a moment, I thought that this was it, that I'd pushed Mr. Kemp further than he was willing to go. There was no way in hell he was going to answer this question.

But then he nodded. "Yes. I can make a small aura sphere about the size of a golf ball. It doesn't have too much destructive energy, but I'm not going to use it in here. Don't want to blow up my grandfather clock, do we?"

I shook my head. "Still, that's pretty incredible" I said, because I couldn't think of anything else to say. It was a shocking revelation, to say the least.

Mr. Kemp nodded again. "I didn't realize that for quite a while. Throughout high school and college, I felt like I could see better at night than many of my peers, but I just dismissed that as simply having better eyesight. Then while in the military, I was often used for nighttime missions, and I didn't require a flashlight. I could see about twenty yards around me just using aura, although I didn't realize that's what it was. I just thought I had this weird gift".

I chuckled. "I suppose aura is a weird gift. You were in the military?" I was rather surprised by this revelation".

"Yeah, I joined right out of college. Served for three years in the Sevii Islands, and then I quit. I wanted to get married and start a family".

"Did you?" I asked him. Almost immediately afterwards, I gulped.

It was then that I knew that this time, I'd pushed him too far. Mr. Kemp looked back at me with an expression that told me he felt as though his privacy had been violated, and he said, "That's not something I'm comfortable talking about".

"Sorry" I replied. "I was just curious".

"And you're going to be curious for a while longer" Mr. Kemp replied sternly. "That's not information I just give out like that".

I was about to protest; we were trusting him with so much, the least he could do would be to trust us with this. At the same time, though, if it was from his personal life, I understood why he might not want to share it.

"Okay" I replied.

"It'll be a little longer before Angelina wakes up, probably" said our host. "If you'd like, I could make breakfast, and it could be ready within a few minutes. But we should probably wait for her to get up first, that way she can have some input too".

I nodded. Then, with nothing else to do, I decided to explore the outside of the manor a little more. I made sure to get Mr. Kemp's permission first, and he said it was okay so long as I didn't go past the fence.

_Why is he so determined that we don't go past the fence?, _I wondered. Arceus, he was so obsessed with it that it was probably unhealthy. We were in our late teens, we could handle the forest, or so I thought.

After making my way past the statue of Sir Aaron next to the hallway, I opened the door and headed outside. I remembered, too late, that I didn't know the passcode to the door, but that probably didn't matter too much; I could simply knock and then Mr. Kemp would let me in.

I saw some Beautifly in the flowers near the manor, and they reminded me somewhat of the flowers at home. There was something slightly eerie about their heads, though; the heads were much larger than the bodies, but they didn't mean any harm to me. Indeed, they were quite cute if I do say so myself.

The crisp early morning air felt heavenly. There was a slight breeze that rippled the grass as well as my white fur. I could hear, in the distance, the sound of a stream rushing, and then I remembered that the stream was right next to the manor. It was still within the boundaries of the fence, meaning that I was permitted to go there.

I walked around the house, which took a little longer than I had expected. On the inside, I hadn't fully appreciated just how large it was. It was most definitely the largest house I'd ever been in, and that was saying something.

Once I reached the stream, I sat down next to it for a while, just listening to the sounds of nature, the sounds that I felt more in tune with now that I was a Pokemon.

Looking down at the small river, I could see that there were fish of several different colors swimming in it; orange, white, red, and purple. I reached into the stream and splashed some water on my face.

It was just the perfect temperature; had it been hotter, it would have been extremely refreshing. Unfortunately, I soon realized my own stupidity.

I'd heard that there was some sort of trick one could use with aura to get water out of one's fur, but I did not know how to do it. Perhaps Mr. Kemp could teach us what he knew, but it didn't seem like that would be much.

_Perhaps I'll just have to use a towel._

I must have sat by the stream for a good twenty to thirty minutes. I couldn't see them over the ten-foot fence, but I knew that the hills were nearby, and I felt them calling to me like there was a piece of metal in my body attracted to a magnet somewhere in the mountains.

However, soon afterwards, I felt somewhat sad, because I strongly suspected that, no matter what, I wouldn't be allowed to exit this area during my stay.

And I realized, just then, how utterly depressing that would be.

* * *

**ANGELINA HAWLEY**

When I woke up at approximately 6:30 AM that day, I didn't remember anything about sleepwalking. I felt like I'd had a good night's sleep, perhaps the best that I'd had in a long time.

I'd had no dreams that I could recall, but as soon as I made my way into the kitchen where breakfast was being made, I could tell that the same could not be said of Lucas.

He looked rather tired as he was sitting at the table, watching Mr. Kemp make scrambled eggs on the stove. His head was down in his hands, as though he were embarrassed, but I didn't particularly think that having nightmares was something to be embarrassed about.

"Morning, Lucas" I told him as I walked in.

He looked up to face me. "Good morning, Angelina" he replied, not looking up from the floor.

I didn't want to sound rude or anything like that, but I did want to know what was on his mind. "Did you have a nightmare?" I asked him, trying to sound as polite as possible.

Lucas nodded. "How could you tell?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Judging by your facial expression and your posture, it's completely transparent. The question is, Lucas, how could I _not _tell?"

"Fair point".

"Do you like scrambled eggs? I asked Lucas. Since that was what Mr. Kemp was making for breakfast, I figured that it made sense to learn something more about my potential boyfriend.

Lucas shook his head. "I can't stand them". Unfortunately, he made the mistake of saying that in front of Mr. Kemp, who turned around to face him.

"I don't care if you don't like eggs, you're going to eat them, because that's what I'm making" he replied.

"Okay then".

I snorted at that. A few minutes later, Mr. Kemp handed us each a plate of eggs and bacon, which we both started eating.

While we were eating, Mr. Kemp reiterated his point from yesterday that neither of us were allowed to go beyond the fence under any circumstances. He once again claimed that it was for our own protection.

"So we're not allowed to leave the manor at all?" Lucas asked. He sounded a little peeved at that, but he didn't argue any further.

"You can go outside into the yard" Mr. Kemp replied. "You just can't go beyond the fence. There are lots of dangerous creatures about in the woods, and Lucario are not necessarily at the top of the food chain".

The way he said it almost seemed to suggest a traumatic event that had taken place in his past, but I wasn't going to ask him about that. It would be rather rude.

"I went outside earlier" Lucas told him.

Mr. Kemp looked at Lucas with an expression that, if I hadn't known better, I would have assumed was a violent one.

"You did?" he asked in a deadly serious tone.

The white-furred Lucario nodded. "I did, but I didn't go beyond the fence. Just went to the stream a bit. The fish there are so pretty".

I nodded and kept eating. I was finding it quite interesting to learn about all the areas around the manor, and I couldn't wait to experience some of those for myself.

On the other hand, we weren't allowed to leave the property. I worried that that would cause a serious case of restlessness in the two of us. It might have been a big house, but there was only so much you could pace around inside of it before you got bored to tears.

"Is there a library here?" I asked Mr. Kemp. Really, I was desperate for anything that might make it easier to be cooped up inside indefinitely. Something that would keep me from going insane.

Our host nodded. "Yeah, it's on the third floor, has a lot of different volumes. You can go there after breakfast; just don't go into the closet, no matter what".

_Oh yeah, I remember that rule from yesterday._

Hopefully, the books were fairly interesting. Perhaps some of them held information about aura and the moves that Lucario could use, and how they could learn them if they didn't already know the methods. I didn't know where we would practice, though.

_Or maybe, _I thought, _the books might have information about how to turn us back human. Oh, wouldn't that be fantastic!_

There were certainly a few cool things that had come as a result of being a Lucario. It was probably pushing me and Lucas closer together; we were certainly bonding somewhat over having both transformed into Pokemon.

On the other hand, I was now stuck in this mansion, being hunted by poachers and people who wanted to see me for all the wrong reasons.

_Not that there is any right reason to want to harass me, _I thought. _I might be a major celebrity now, but I have a life too. And they're going to take my life away from me if they get the chance, those poachers._

If Lucas and I were able to turn back human, then we wouldn't have to be at this mansion anymore. We could go home and see our parents again. We could live normal lives (or, at least, as normal as things can be when you've had this experience).

But if we went home, we'd never see Mr. Kemp again, and I'd never get to explore the area surrounding the manor. Just like Lucas did, I felt a certain attachment to these mountains, like they were exactly where I belonged.

Of course, Mr. Kemp had told us that under no circumstances were we to go there, that it was too dangerous. The question was, would there be any way to persuade him otherwise? Could we somehow get him to let up?

I pondered that question through the rest of breakfast. I ate the whole plate of eggs and bacon while barely tasting any of it.

After breakfast, Lucas and I headed up to the third floor, where Mr. Kemp had said the library was. And, sure enough, he had been telling the truth.

Now, I'm not one to spend a lot of time in libraries; you couldn't call me a nerd at all. Even so, this library was pretty spectacular, with several rows of bookshelves and a central reading area. There must have been over a thousand volumes in the room.

_I wonder if this is what Mr. Kemp does in his spare time; he probably has a lot of it. Maybe he just spends the time in this room, reading these books. That would probably take up quite a while._

And in the corner, I saw a metal door that led into a closet. I remembered Mr. Kemp telling us not to go into that closet, no matter what.

There's something about being prohibited from doing something that makes you really, really want to do it. If you know that effect, you can imagine exactly how I was feeling in that moment, when I realized that the closet was right there and yet we couldn't go in.

_Then again, who says we have to follow Mr. Kemp's rules?_

"Lucas?" I asked him. He was going down one of the rows of books, presumably looking for a title that might help us turn back human, or else adapt to our current form a little more.

He turned to face me. "Yes?"

I pointed to the metal door that led to the forbidden closet. "Do you think we should go in there? I know Mr. Kemp told us not to, but I'm quite curious. What do you think's in there?"

Lucas shrugged his shoulders. "I'm really not sure, but I think that whatever it is, it's probably pretty important to him that we don't go in there. He seemed pretty adamant that we had to stay out of it, you know?"

I hung my head down low. "I suppose you're right".

Instead of exploring the forbidden closet, the two of us spent the next three hours poring over the various volumes, trying to find something that would help our situation. For the most part, however, we turned up empty-handed.

As it became increasingly clear that we would not be successful, though, and as it got hotter and hotter in the library (for whatever reason, the third floor of the mansion did not have air conditioning), we made a mutual decision to abandon the search for information and instead went down to the living room.

"Find anything interesting in the library?" Mr. Kemp asked us as we entered said living room. He was sitting by the empty fireplace, reading a book whose title was partly obscured by dust.

I shook my head. It was then that Lucas gave a great sneeze.

"Bless you" I told him.

Lucas grabbed a tissue from the nearby box and said, "Thanks. I have really bad seasonal allergies that I suppose carry over from my human form, and I think there's a lot of dust around the house. How old is this house, exactly?"

Mr. Kemp scratched his chin. "I believe it was built around 1880" he replied. "So I guess that explains why there's so much dust".

_Oof, _I thought. _That really sucks._

"But," Mr. Kemp continued, "I have housekeepers come every Monday, and they take care of a lot of the dust. As a matter of fact, today is Monday, so they should be here in a few minutes".

I turned to Lucas, smiling. "Don't you see, Lucas? Today's your lucky day".

Lucas snorted. "Yeah, I guess so".

Soon enough, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it" Mr. Kemp said. "That'll be the housekeepers, and I really don't want them seeing you as Lucario. So before I get it, go to the third floor. Go to the library".

I internally groaned. We'd just been in the library for three hours, poring over all sorts of books, and now Mr. Kemp wanted us to go back up there.

Lucas looked at me with an expression that clearly stated, _This is not going to be fun._

And no, it wasn't going to be fun. But if that's what it took to keep the housekeepers from knowing that Mr. Kemp was harboring the two human teenagers who had transformed into Lucario, then that's what it took.

We went back up to the library, making sure to stay as far away from the windows as possible so that the housekeepers didn't see us. Fortunately, I did find something up there that would keep us occupied.

There was a checked board, eight spaces by eight spaces, that looked like it hadn't been in use for several decades at least. In a compartment attached to the board, there were thirty-two different pieces, some light, some dark, and all different sizes and shapes.

Which could only mean one thing.

"Do you want to play chess, Lucas?"

Lucas shrugged. "I'm not very good at it, but I do enjoy it. I suppose that'll keep us busy, at least for a little while, so why not?"

And really, in my opinion, that was the right attitude to have. We weren't in an ideal situation right now, and it was important to make the best of it in any way we could. I just hoped that we'd be able to go back downstairs soon enough.

As the day outside got hotter and hotter, it became increasingly stuffy in the library, which, as stated above, didn't have AC. We did play a few games of chess over the next two hours. I won some, I lost some, and Lucas and myself were probably at roughly equivalent skill levels when it came to chess.

_I hope we can find some books in here about chess, _I thought. _Otherwise, it's going to seem like forever that we're stuck here._

"Should we go in the closet now?" Lucas joked two hours later. By now, both of us were sweating like beasts, which I suppose we were. Both of us were also probably slightly dehydrated from the heat, and it showed in the way Lucas practically rasped that question.

I shook my head. "You said so yourself, Lucas. Mr. Kemp must have an important reason why he won't let us go in there".

"Okay then".

It wasn't long after that that, mercifully, Mr. Kemp came back upstairs and told us that the housekeepers were gone and we could go have lunch.

_If this is what every day is going to be like here, _I thought grimly, _then _let _the poachers catch me._


	14. A Message To All My Readers

It's with a heavy heart that I write this, but it has to be said.

After pushing and pushing myself for months, so many months on end, to write something, a good story, a long and epic story, I've failed.

I haven't just failed at my goal of writing entertaining stories for you guys. I've failed _all _of you guys, either by not completing stories or not giving up sooner. Part of me still doesn't want to give up.

But, unless something very drastic changes, I will no longer be trying to write fanfiction. I hope I can mean it this time, because I owe it to all my readers to make a decision and stick to it.

Clamoring for more reviews, favorites, follows, and views...you deserve better. _I _deserve better, for it has had a negative effect on my mental health. I've been stressed a lot more now that I keep pushing myself to write.

There have been many times over the last several months that I've tried to take the plunge, to dive right in. But I'm too scared to make such a long-term commitment, not when I'm starting college soon.

It's funny, really; you'd think that after some of the things I've done in real life, _nothing _would scare me anymore. But that's just not the way it is.

I can't find the motivation to write that I once had, and the writer's block is a brick wall I just can't chisel through, not right now anyway.

Of course, I'll still be involved in the fandom. Maybe I'll read here and there, although it might bring back longing memories of those days when I wielded . a powerful pen (or in my case the keyboard of my laptop computer that I had replaced a few months ago after my old one quit on me).

If anyone wants to talk to me, wants to know anything more, my Discord information is **SnowLucario#5443. **If that doesn't work, try **Ludicrous Lucas#5443. **I use both handles interchangeably.

That is that. Anyone who doesn't hate my guts can find me on Discord, and, to everybody else...well, I hope you don't hate me _too _much.

Sincerely, SnowLucario


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